The  Ohio  State  University  Bulletin 

VOLUME  XXIV  APRIL  1,  1920  NUMBER  23 

CONTRIBUTIONS  IN  HISTORY  AND  POLITICAL  SCIENCE     NUMBER  5 


The  Loyalists  of 
Pennsylvania 


BY 
WILBUR  H.  SIEBERT 

Professor  in 
The  Ohio  State  University 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  AT  COLUMBUS 

Entered   as   second-class   matter  November    17,    1905,   at  the   post-office   at   Columbus, 
Ohio,  under  Act  of  Congress,  July  16,  1894. 


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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO 

PAGE 

Dunmore,  Connolly,  and  Loyalism  at  Fort  Pitt 9 

Connolly's  Plot 10 

The  Loyalists  Plan  to  Capture  Red  Stone  Old  Fort 13 

Flight  of  the  Loyalist  Leaders  from  Pittsburgh,  March  28,  1778 14 

Loyalist  Associations  and  the  Plot  of  1779-1781 15 

Where  the  Refugees  from  the  Upper  Ohio  Settled  after  the  War 17 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LOYALISTS  OF  NORTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  Loyalists  on  the  Upper  Delaware  and  Upper  Susquehanna  Rivers ...  19 

Exodus  of  Loyalists  from  the  Susquehanna  to  Fort  Niagara,  1777-1778  19 

The  Escort  of  Tory  Parties  from  the  Upper  Valleys  to  Niagara 20 

Where   These   Loyalists   Settled 21 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  REPRESSION  OF  LOYALISTS  AND  NEUTRALS  IN 
SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Political  Sentiment  in  Philadelphia  and  Its  Neighborhood  in   1775 22 

Operations  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  1775-1776 23 

Activities  of  the  Committee  of  Bucks  County,  July  21,  1775,  to  August 

12,  1776   26 

Effect  of  the  Election  of  April,  1776,  in  Philadelphia 27 

Tory  Clubs  in  the  City  27 

The  Constitutional  Convention  of  Pennsylvania,  July,  1776,  and  Later..  28 

Effect  of  Howe's  Invasion  of  New  Jersey,  November  and  December,  1776  29 

Continued  Disaffection  in  Berks  County  and  in  Philadelphia,  1777 31 

3 

0 


42£920 


The  Test  Acts  of  April  1  and  June  13,  1777 32 

Persistence  of  Loyalism  in   Philadelphia  and  the   Neighboring  Region, 

August,  1777    34 

Effects  of  Howe's  Expedition  to  Philadelphia,  August  25,  1777,  and  Later  35 
Arrest  of  the  Proprietary  and  Crown  Officials,  July  31,  1777,  to  Octo 
ber  1,  1777 37 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA, 
AUGUST  25,  1777,  to  JUNE  18,  1778 

The  Loyalist  Accessions  of  the  British  Army 38 

The  Conduct  of  Philadelphians  at  the  Approach  of  Howe's  Army. ...  39 

The  Forming  of  Loyalist  Regiments 40 

Philadelphia's  Tory  Administration   43 

The  Battle  of  Germantown  46 

Philadelphia  as  an  Asylum  for  Loyalist  Refugees 46 

Intercourse  between  the  City  and  Its  Environs 47 

Festivities  in  Philadelphia  during  the  "Tory  Supremacy" 50 

The  Evacuation  of  the  City  by  the  British  and  Many  Loyalists 52 

Their  Retreat  across  New  Jersey,  June  17  to  July  5,  1778 53 

The  Loyalist  Regiments  in  Camp  54 

Damage  to  Philadelphia  and  Germantown  by  the  British  Occupation ....  54 


CHAPTER  V 

WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  DURING  AND  AFTER  THE 
BRITISH  OCCUPATION  OF  PHILADELPHIA 

Operations  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  October  13,  1777 56 

Appropriating  the  College  in  Philadelphia  and  the  Estates  of  Refugees, 

January  2,  1778,  to  April  27,  1781 57 

Disabilities  of  Non-jurors  under  the  Act  of  April  1,  1778 59 

Phases  in  the  Hstory  and  Endowment  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 

February,  1779,  to  December,  1791 60 

Adjustment  of  the  Claims  of  the  Proprietaries,  February,  1778,  to  1791. .  62 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PURCHASE  OF  THE  INDIAN  TRACT  ON  LAKE  ERIE 

Acquisition  of  the  Tract  and  Its  Opening  to  White  Settlers,  September 

25,  1783,  to  February  23,  1787 66 

Transfer  to  Pennsylvania  of  the  United  States  Government's  Title, 

September  4,  1788,  to  March  4,  1789 66 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  THE  DEPARTURE  OF 
THE  BRITISH  FROM  THE  STATE 

Benedict  Arnold  as  Commandant  of  Philadelphia,  June  19,  1778,  to 

mid-July,  1780  68 

Prosecution  of  Inimical  Persons,  1779  68 

The  Problem  of  Ridding  Philadelphia  of  the  Wives  of  Loyalist  Refugees, 

1779  to  1782  72 

Action  of  Continental  Army  Officers  in  the  City  against  the  Disaffected, 

April  6,  1780 75 

Philadelphia  under  Martial  Law,  June  9,  1780 76 

Illicit  Trade  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  1779-1780 78 

The  Tory  Plot  to  Carry  Off  the  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  Novem 
ber,  1781 79 

Continuance  of  the  Illicit  Traffic  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 

1782  80 

Attempts  to  Suppress  Loyalist  Depredations  in  Southeastern  Pennsyl 
vania,  1782-1783  80 

Opposition  to  the  Return  of  Loyalists  under  the  Terms  of  the  Treaty 

of  1783  .  81 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  BY  THE  SUPREME 
EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL,  1780-1790 

Applications,  Suspensions,  and  Full  Pardons 83 

Joseph  Galloway's   Petition    85 

Loyalists  in  Philadelphia  after  the  Peace 86 

Efforts  to  Abolish  the  Test  Laws,  1784 87 

The  Test  Act  of  March  4,  1786 89 

The  Repeal  of  the  Test  Acts,  March  13,  1789 90 

A  Curious  Instance  of  the  Revival  of  the  Old  Animosities 90 

5 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  SALE  OF  FORFEITED  ESTATES 

The  Confiscation  and  Sale  of  Loyalist  Estates,  October,  1777,  to  April  12, 

1779    92 

The  Period  of  Sales,  April,  1779,  to  December,  1790 92 

The  Use  of  Confiscated  Estates  for  the  Endowment  of  the  University  and 

for  Other  Purposes 94 

Exceptional  Cases  of  Confiscation   94 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    EMIGRATION    OF    PENNSYLVANIA    LOYALISTS 

I.  FLIGHTS  TO  ENGLAND: 

Early  Departures  from  Philadelphia  and  New  York 96 

Provision  for  the  Large  Number  of  Refugees  in  New  York  after 

the  British  Evacuation  of  Philadelphia 98 

Departures  from  New  York  to  London  in  1783 98 

II.  THE  MIGRATION  TO  NOVA  SCOTIA: 

Many  Families  from  Pennsylvania  Settle  at  Shelburne,  Nova  Scotia     100 
The  Founding  of  Guysborough,  Nova  Scotia,  Spring  of  1784 101 

III.  THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  : 

The  Early  History  of  Pennfield,  July,  1783,  June,  1803 101 

The  Resolution  of  Philadelphia  Citizens  against  the  Return  of 

Refugees  103 

Letter  of  the  Officers  of  Loyalist  Regiments  at  New  York  to  Sir 

Guy  Carleton,  March  14,  1783 103 

Departure  of  the  Loyalist  Regiments  to  St.  John  River,  September 

15,  1783  104 

The  Drawing  of  Regimental  Tracts  and  Town  Lots 105 

LOCATIONS  OF  THE  FOLLOWING  REGIMENTS  CONTAINING  PENNSYLVANIANS: 

The  New  Jersey  Volunteers  106 

The  Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers 108 

The  Queen's  Rangers  108 

The  Pennsylvania   Loyalists 109 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
DIARIES,  LETTERS,  AND  PERSONAL  NARRATIVES 

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Bethlehem,  Pa."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XII,  No.  4. 

Calendar  of  the  Correspondence  of  George    Washington,   I. 

Dexter.  F.  B.,  ed. :  The  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  1776-1795.    Three  vola. 

"Diary  of  James  Allen,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  Counsellor-at-Law.  1770-1778."  In  The  Penn 
sylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  IX,  NOB.  2,  3,  4. 

Diary  and  Letters  of  His  Excellency,   Thomas  Hutchinson,   II. 

"Diary  of  Robert  Morton."  In   The  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  I. 

Duane,  William,  ed. :  Extracts  from  the  Diary  of  Christopher  Marshall  .  .  .  1774-1781.  Passages 
from  the  Diary  of  Christopher  Marshall,  kept  in  Philadelphia  and  Lancaster  during  th* 
American  Revolution,  I,  1774-1777.  (Phila.,  Dec.,  1849.) 

"Extracts  form  the  Journal  of  Mrs.  Henry  Drinker,  of  Philadelphia,  from  September  25,  1777, 
to  July  4,  1778."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XIII,  No.  8. 

Gilpin.  Thomas,  ed. ;  Exiles  in  Virginia:  with  Observations  on  the  Conduct  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  comprising  the  Offical  Papers  of  the  Government 
relating  to  that  Period.  1777-1778.  (Phila.,  1848.) 

Journal  and  Letters  of  the  late  Samuel  Curwen,  Judge  of  Admiralty,  etc.,  a  Loyalist  Refugee 
in  England,  during  the  American  Revolution.  3d  ed. 

"Letters  of  Robert  Proud."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XXXIV, 
No.  133. 

"Letters  of  Thomas  Wharton,  1773-1783."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and 
Biography,  XXXIV,  No.  133. 

"Narrative  of  the  Transactions,  Imprisonment  and  Sufferings  of  John  Connolly,  an  American 
Loyalist  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  His  Majesty's  Service."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Maga 
zine  of  History  and  Biography,  XII,  Nos.  3  and  4  ;  XIII,  No.  3. 

"Narrative  or  Journal  of  Capt.  John  Ferdinand  Dalziel  Smyth,  of  the  Queen's  Rangers."  In 
The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XXXIX,  No.  154. 

Narrative  of  James  Moody. 

"Popp's  Journal,  1777-1783."  In  Tht  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XXVI, 
No.  101. 

Raymond,  Rev.  W.  O.,  ed. :  Winslow  Papers,  A.D.  1776-1826. 

Thwaites,  R.  G.,  and  Kellogg,   Louise  P.,   Frontier  Defense  on  the  Upper  Ohio. 

BIOGRAPHIES 

Baldwin,  Ernest  H  ,  "Joseph  Galloway,  the  Loyalist  Politician."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Maga 
zine  of  History  and  Biography,  XXVI,  Nos.  102,  103,  104. 

Burton,  C.  M.,  "John  Connolly,  a  Tory  of  the  Revolution."  In  the  Proceedings  of  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  Oct.,  1909. 

Read,  D.  B.,  Life  and  Times  of  Governor  Simcoe. 

Sabine,  Lorenzo,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution.    Two   vols. 

Scott,  Duncan  C.,  John  Graves  Simcoe. 

STATE  AND  LOCAL  HISTORIES 

"The  Penfield  Records."    In  Collections  of  th*  New  Brunswick  Historical  Society,  No.  4. 

Haliburton,  Thomas  C.,  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  II. 

Ganong,  W.  F.,   Monograph  of  Historic  Sites  in  the  Province  of  New   Brunswick;   Monograph 

of  the  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  New  Brunswick. 

Jack,  D.  R.,  Centennial  Prize  Essay  on  the.  History  of  the  City  and  County  of  St.  John,  N.  B. 
Papers  read  before  the  Lancaster  County  Historical  Society,  XII,   No.   6. 
Proud,  Robert,  The  History  of  Pennsylvania  .   .  .  Of  the  General  State  in  which  it  Flourished. 

principally    between   the    Years    1760    and    1770.     Written    principally    between    the    Years 

1778  and  17*0. 
Raymond,  Rev.  W.  O.,  "Early  Days  of  Woodstock,  N.  B."    In  The  Dispatch  of  Woodstock,  N.  B., 

December,   1906,  and  January,   1907. 
Raymond,  Rev.  W.  O.,  The  River  St.  John. 


Scharf,  History  of  Maryland. 

Vroom,   J.,   Courier  Series,   LXXII. 
^s      Scharf  and  Westcott,  History  of  Philadelphia,   I. 

Siebert,  Wilbur  H.,  "The  Loyalists  in  West  Florida  and  the  Natchez  District."  In  The 
Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  II,  March,  1916;  "The  Loyalists  and  Six  Nation 
Indians  in  the  Niagara  Peninsula."  In  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  IX. 
"Refugee  Loyalists  of  Connecticut."  In  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada, 
Series  III,  Volume  X.  "The  Tories  of  the  Upper  Ohio."  In  Biennial  Report,  Archives 
and  History,  West  Virginia,  1911-1914. 

Stryker,  William  S.,  The  New  Jersey  Volunteers  (Loyalists)  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
(Pamphlet.) 

OFFICIAL  RECORDS  AND  LAWS 

^/     American  Archives,  4th  Series,  IV,  V,   VI ;  5th  Series,  I,  II,  III. 

Charters,  Statutes,  and  By-Laws  of  the  University  [of  Pennsylvania].  Revised,  March,  1826. 
(Pamphlet.) 

"Claims  of  American  Loyalists."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography, 
XV. 

Colonial  Records  of  Pa.,  X,  XI,  XII,  XIII,  XIV,  XV,  XVI. 

Examination  of  Joseph  Galloway,  Esq.,  Late  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  before  the  House  of  Commons,  in  a  Committee  on  the  American  Papers.  With 
Explanatory  Notes.  2d  ed.  London,  1780. 

Godfrey,  Carlos  E.,  "Muster  Rolls  of  Three  Troops  of  Loyalist  Light  Dragoons  Raised  in  Penn 
sylvania,  1777-1778."  In  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XXXIV, 
No.  133. 

Journal  of  Congress,  new  ed.,  IX. 

Journals  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania*,  Novembei* 
28,  1776,  to  October,  1781-1782. 

Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  II,  III. 

Medical  Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Oct.,   1844.     (Pamphlet.) 

"Minutes  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  of  Bucks  County,  Pa.,  1774-1776."  In  The  Pennsylvania 
Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  XV,  No.  3. 

Minutes  of  the  Council  of  Safety  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  1777-1778.     (Jersey  City,   1872.) 
^/'Minutes  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  of  Pennsylvania,  from  Its  Organization  to   the   Ter 
mination  of  the  Revolution,  March  4,   1777,   to   December  20,   1790.    Six  vols. 

Report  on  the  American  Manuscripts  in   the  Royal  Institution   of  Great   Britain,   I,  II,  III,   IV. 

Second  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Archives  for   the  Province   of   Ontario,    1904,    Parts   I    and  II. 

Statutes  at  Large  of  Pennsylvania,  IX,  XII,   XIV. 

Third  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Archives  for  the  Province  of  Ontario,  1905. 

Winslow,  Muster  Master  General  Edward,  Muster  Rolls  of  the   [Loyalist]   Provincial  Corps. 

(Unpublished.) 
\/  Griffin,  Bibliography  of  American  Historical  Societies.    2d  ed.,  1907. 

GENERAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  WORKS 

A  Century  of  Population  Growth  in  Die  United  States,  1790-1900. 

Drake,   Francis  S.,  Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

Gentleman's  Magazine,   August,   1778. 

Medical  Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.    Issued  by  the  Medical  Professors  of  the 

University  of  Pennsylvania.     (Philadelphia,   October,   1844.)      (Pamphlet.) 
New  Jersey  Archives,  Second  Series,  II,  III. 
Raymond,   Rev.   W.   O.,    "Loyalists   in  Arms."    In   Collections  of   the   New   Brunswick   Historical 

Society,   No.  5. 

Sargent  Winthrop,  ed.,  Loyal   Verses  of  Joseph  Stansbury  and  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell. 
Siebert,   Wilbur  H.,  Flight   of  American  Loyalists  to   the   British  Isles.    (Pamphlet.)     "The  Dia- 

persion  of  the  American  Tories."    In  The  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  I. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO 

Toryism  or  Loyalism  became  active  among  the  frontiersmen  of 
western  Pennsylvania  before  it  did  in  other  parts  of  the  Colony. 
This  activity  was  evoked  in  the  early  seventeen  seventies  by  Lord 
Dunmore's  attempt  to  settle  the  boundary  dispute  between  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania  by  taking  forcible  possession  of  Fort  Pitt.  Dun 
more's  agent  in  effecting  this  enterprise  was  Dr.  John  Connolly, 
captain  commandant  of  the  militia  in  the  region  concerned,  who 
with  about  80  of  his  men  seized  the  fort  at  the  end  of  January, 
1774,  changed  its  name  to  Fort  Dunmore,  organized  the  surround 
ing  district  into  a  new  county,  and  thus  supplanted  or  usurped  the 
authority  of  Pennsylvania  on  the  upper  Ohio.  The  new  order  of 
things  found  many  supporters  among  the  old  residents  of  Pitts 
burgh,  those  who  resisted  being  severely  dealt  with  by  the  com 
mandant,  while  the  neighboring  Indians  were  subjected  to  depre 
dations  by  Connolly  and  his  adherents.  Stirred  thus  to  acts  of 
retaliation,  the  savages  were  not  restored  to  a  state  of  submission 
until  Dunmore  had  conducted  the  militia  of  the  frontier  counties 
on  an  expedition  against  them,  which  received  the  sounding  appel 
lation  of  Dunmore's  War. 

The  clash  of  authority  between  the  new  regime  and  the  old 
at  Fort  Dunmore  is  illustrated  by  a  proclamation  issued  by  Con 
nolly  at  the  end  of  this  year.  In  this  manifesto  the  commandant 
said  that  he  was  informed  that  certain  persons  in  the  region  round 
about,  who  were  called  collectors,  were  apparently  authorized  to 
commit  various  deeds  of  violence,  including  the  breaking  open  of 
doors,  cupboards,  etc.,  in  order  to  extort  money  from  the  inhabi 
tants  under  the  name  of  taxes.  He  therefore  apprised  his  Majesty's 
subjects  that  there  could  be  no  authority  legally  vested  in  anybody 
to  perform  such  acts  "at  this  juncture,"  that  such  measures  were 
unwarrantable  as  abuses  of  public  liberty,  and  that  all  persons 
had  an  undoubted  natural,  as  well  as  lawful,  right  to  repel  them. 
The  proclamation  closed  by  directing  the  people  to  apprehend  any 
one  attempting  the  seizure  of  their  effects,  in  consequence  of  such 

9 


10  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

imaginary  authority,  in  order  that  he  might  be  dealt  with  accord 
ing  to  law.1 

In  June,  1775,  Connolly  held  an  Indian  council  at  the  fort  in 
pursuance  of  the  programme  of  his  patron,  the  governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  to  win  the  redmen  for  the  King,  and  he  tells  us  in  his  Nar 
rative  that  he  "had  the  happiness"  of  doing  so.  He  also  relates 
how  he  brought  together  a  group  of  his  friends — "most  of  them 
either  officers  in  the  militia,  or  magistrates  of  the  county"  (of 
West  Augusta) — who  entered  into  a  secret  agreement  to  assist  in 
restoring  constitutional  government,  if  he  could  procure  the  nec 
essary  authority  to  raise  men.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  Connolly 
and  his  adherents  were  determined  to  prepare  for  armed  resist 
ance  to  the  revolutionary  party,  which  had  assumed  control  of 
the  colonial  government. 

As  a  precautionary  measure,  which  Dunmore  deemed  needful 
on  account  of  the  numerous  friends  of  the  American  cause  on  the 
upper  Ohio,  the  commandant  disbanded  the  garrison  of  Fort  Dun- 
more  in  the  early  days  of  July,  and  on  the  20th  of  that  month  set 
out  for  Virginia  to  submit  his  plans  for  future  operations  to  the 
official  he  was  serving.  Arrived  at  Norfolk,  where  Dunmore  was 
already  a  refugee  on  board  a  British  man-of-war,  Connolly  spent 
two  weeks  completing  his  arrangements,  and  then  proceeded  to 
Boston  to  lay  them  before  General  Gage.  In  brief,  his  plan  was 
to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  whites  and  Indians  from  the  royal 
post  at  Detroit  and  the  garrison  from  Fort  Gage  on  the  Illinois  in 
an  expedition  against  the  upper  Ohio,  where  he  would  enlist  a 
battalion  of  Loyalists  and  some  independent  companies,  besides 
gaining  the  active  support  of  the  neighboring  Indians.  With  the 
force  thus  collected,  he  would  seize  or,  if  necessary,  destroy  forts 
Pitt  and  Fincastle,  and  form  a  junction  with  Lord  Dunmore  at 
Alexandria,  thus  severing  the  Southern  Colonies  from  the  North 
ern  and  assuring  the  success  of  the  royal  cause  in  the  South.  That 
the  Indian  villages  might  be  prepared  for  his  coming,  Loyalist 
traders  went  among  them  to  represent  to  them  that  the  American 
"Long  Knives"  were  no  less  enemies  of  the  tribesmen  than  of  the 
King.  This  part  of  Connolly's  plot  was  the  first  to  be  thwarted, 
for  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  of  West  Augusta  County 
brought  about  a  conference  in  September  and  October,  1775,  at 
Pittsburgh  between  the  tribes  from  the  Ohio,  upper  Allegheny, 


1  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  X,  288. 


THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO  11 

and  the  neighborhood  of  Detroit  and  the  commissioners  of  Con 
gress,  which  terminated  in  a  treaty  of  peace  and  neutrality.2 

But  other  unforeseen  contingencies  were  to  arise  to  the  com 
plete  undoing  of  the  plot.  Connolly  returned  to  Virginia  after  a 
prolonged  stay  in  Boston,  received  a  commission  as  lieutenant 
colonel  commandant  from  Dunmore,  and  in  company  with  two 
Loyalists,  Allen  Cameron  and  Dr.  John  Ferdinand  Dalziel  Smyth, 
set  out  for  Detroit,  November  13.  Smyth  was  to  be  appointed  sur 
geon  and  Cameron  a  lieutenant  in  the  battalion — the  Loyal  For 
esters — to  be  raised  by  their  companion.  A  week  later  the  trio  was 
arrested  a  few  miles  north  of  Hagerstown,  and  a  few  days  there 
after  a  copy  of  Connolly's  "proposals"  was  discovered  in  his  pos 
session,  whereupon  Congress  was  asked  what  should  be  done  with 
the  prisoners.  That  body  ordered  that  they  be  escorted  to  Phila 
delphia  under  guard.  On  the  night  of  December  28,  Dr.  Smyth 
escaped  from  the  jail  at  Fredericktown  with  letters  to  Connolly's 
wife  and  the  Tory,  Alexander  McKee,  at  Pittsburgh,  as  also  to 
military  officers  at  Kaskasia  and  Detroit.  The  latter  were  urged 
to  "push  down  the  Mississippi  and  join  Lord  Dunmore."  After  a 
perilous  journey  of  300  miles,  the  undaunted  messenger  was  cap 
tured  by  a  party  from  Fort  Pitt,  January  12,  1776,  with  Con 
nolly's  letters  still  on  his  person.  He  was  then  conveyed  to  Phila 
delphia,  or  as  he  picturesquely  expresses  it,  he  was  "dragged  in 
triumph  700  miles,  bound. hands  and  feet,  to  the  Congress."  Mean 
time,  Connolly  and  Cameron  had  been  conducted  to  the  same  desti 
nation  and  were  brought  before  the  Committee  of  Safety,  Janu- 
,  ary  29,  but  were  remanded  to  jail  to  remain  until  further  orders 
as  persons  "inimical  to  the  liberties  of  America."  In  the  follow 
ing  December  Cameron  and  Smyth  planned  to  escape  from  their 
confinement  by  a  rope  made  of  blankets.  Smyth  appears  to  have 
succeeded  at  this  time,  or  soon  after,  for  he  came  in  with  Lieuten 
ant  James  Murray  and  61  recruits  very  soon  after  Howe's  expedi 
tion  landed  at  the  head  of  the  Elk  River,  August  25,  1777,  and 
was  given  a  captain's  commission  in  the  Queen's  Rangers  a  month 
later.  In  representing  his  own  services  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
Smyth  with  characteristic  exaggeration  claimed  to  have  raised  a 
corps  of  185  men  at  his  own  expense,  in  addition  to  others  in  such 
numbers  that  his  recruits  composed  the  greater  part  of  the  Rang 
ers.  Cameron,  however,  had  the  misfortune  of  breaking  both  his 
ankles  by  a  fall  of  fifty  feet,  when  he  attempted  to  descend  by 


12  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

means  of  the  improvised  rope;  but  he  recovered  sufficiently  to 
undertake  the  voyage  to  England  in  the  winter  of  1778,  the  Brit 
ish  being  then  in  possession  of  Philadelphia.  In  the  fall  of  1776 
Connolly  was  released  on  account  of  failing  health,  and  was  per 
mitted  to  reside  on  his  parole  at  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law, 
James  Ewing,  on  the  Susquehanna  River.  Suspicions  soon  arising 
concerning  his  conduct,  Connolly  was  remanded  to  jail,  but  was 
again  allowed  to  retire  to  Swing's  plantation,  April  2,  1777,  after 
furnishing  a  bond  of  £4,000  for  his  good  behavior  and  prom 
ising  not  to  depart  more  than  five  miles  from  the  plantation. 
A  little  more  than  six  months  later  Congress  ordered  its  trouble 
some  prisoner  of  war  confined  in  the  jail  at  Yorktown,  where  it 
was  then  sitting,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not  acting  consist 
ently  with  his  parole  and  was  believed  to  be  the  prospective  in 
strument  in  a  barbarous  war  with  which  the  frontier  was  being 
threatened.  He  was  kept  in  confinement  until  in  November,  1779, 
when  he  was  sent  to  Germantown  on  parole,  and  on  July  4,  1780, 
was  allowed  to  go  to  New  York,  under  pledge  of  doing  or  saying 
nothing  injurious  to  the  United  States  and  of  conducting  himself 
as  a  prisoner  of  war  should  do.  Nevertheless,  he  promptly  sub 
mitted  plans  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton  for  employing  provincial  troops 
and  Indian  auxiliaries  in  attacking  the  frontier  outposts,  seizing 
Pittsburgh,  fortifying  the  Alleghenies,  and  otherwise  promoting 
the  royal  cause  in  that  region.  By  April  3,  1781,  the  only  progress 
Connolly  appears  to  have  made  towards  realizing  these  ambitious 
projects  was  in  enlisting  58  Loyal  Foresters;  and  when  Clinton 
proposed  to  commission  him  lieutenant  colonel  commandant  in 
the  Queen's  Rangers,  he  accepted  the  commission  and  sailed  with 
that  corps  for  Yorktown,  Va.  On  his  arrival  at  Yorktown,  Con 
nolly  was  appointed  by  Cornwallis  to  the  command  of  the  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Carolina  Loyalists,  with  a  detachment  of  the 
York  Volunteers,  and  was  sent  to  protect  the  inhabitants  of  the 
peninsula  formed  by  the  James  River  and  Chesapeake  Bay.  Late 
in  September  he  was  again  taken  prisoner,  but  after  Cornwallis's 
surrender  was  permitted  by  the  governor  of  Virginia  to  return  to 
Philadelphia,  where  he  arrived,  December  12th.  At  the  end  of  the 
same  month  Connolly  was  brought  before  the  Supreme  Executive 
Council  of  Pennsylvania,  on  the  charge  of  having  violated  his  pa 
role  in  Virginia,  and  was  committed  to  the  common  jail,  inasmuch 
as  his  going  at  large  would  be  "dangerous  to  the  public  welfare 


THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO  13 

and  safety."  With  him  was  incarcerated  one  of  his  Loyal  Forest 
ers,  James  Lewis,  who  attended  him  as  a  servant.  Connolly  re 
mained  in  prison  until  March  1,  1782,  when  through  the  efforts 
of  friends  he  was  permitted  to  withdraw  to  New  York,  on  condi 
tion  of  his  going  to  England.  This  condition  he  fulfilled  "when  the 
fleet  sailed."  In  his  Narrative  Colonel  Connolly  tells  us  that  the 
recruits  he  had  raised  in  Virginia,  together  with  the  officers  he 
had  warranted  for  his  intended  regiment,  shared  the  fate  of  Corn- 
wallis's  army  at  Yorktown,  and  that  those  recruits  (Loyal  For.-, 
esters)  who  had  remained  at  New  York,  "as  soon  as  the  war  be 
came  merely  defensive,  were  drafted  into  another  corps."  The 
misfortunes  of  Connolly  and  his  intimates  served  to  block,  not  once 
but  several  times,  a  plot  that  American  historians  agree  was  the 
most  formidable  Tory  enterprise  ever  concocted  against  the  back 
country  during  the  entire  revolutionary  period,  and  one  which, 
if  successful,  might  have  produced  grave  consequences  for  the 
American  cause  in  general.2 

There  were,  however,  other  Tory  enterprises  besides  Con 
nolly's,  which  aimed  at  the  reduction  of  the  country  on  the  upper 
Ohio.  One  of  these  was  revealed  late  in  August,  1777,  to  Colonel 
Thomas  Gaddis  of  Westmoreland  County,  Pa.,  who  in  turn 
warned  Lieutenant  Colonel  Thomas  Brown  at  Redstone  Old  Fort 
on  the  Monongahela  that  the  local  Tories  had  associated  for  the 
purpose  of  cutting  off  the  other  inhabitants.  While  Brown  kept 
guard  over  his  powder  magazine  and  sent  word  to  the  patriots  to 
be  "upon  their  watch,"  Gaddis  and  Colonel  Zackwell  Morgan  of 
Monongalia  County,  Va.,  at  once  led  out  the  militia,  together  with 
some  unenlisted  men,  in  search  of  the  Loyalists;  and  by  August 
29,  Colonel  Morgan  was  able  to  report  that  he  had  already  cap 
tured  numbers  of  associators,  who  confessed  that  they  were  in 
league  with  certain  leading  men  at  Fort  Pitt  and  were  awaiting 
a  concerted  attack  by  a  force  of  British,  French,  and  Indians  on 
that  post,  which  was  then  to  be  surrendered  with  but  little  oppo 
sition.  Some  of  those  involved  in  this  plot  fled  to  the  mountains. 
Among  these  was  Henry  Maggee  of  the  Perth  Valley  in  Cumber 
land  County,  who  resorted  with  thirty  others  to  the  fastnesses  of 
the  Alleghenies.  Some  years  later  Maggee  made  an  affidavit  that, 


2  Siebert,  "The  Tories  of  the  Upper  Ohio"  in  Bien.  Report,  Arch,  and  Hist.,  W.  Va., 
1911-1914,  41  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Apr.,  1889,  154-166 ;  Oct.,  1889,  281-286 ;  Colon. 
Records  of  Pa.,  X,  461,  470 ;  XI,  196 ;  XIII,  160,  163.  Papers  read  before  the  Lancaster  Co. 
Hist.  Soc.,  VII,  No.  6,  126;  Sec.  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.,  Pt.  II.  1144-1146;  Rev.  W.  O. 
Raymond's  Ms.  Notes  from  the  Muster  Rolls  of  the  Provincial  Corps;  Am.  Arch.f  4th  Ser., 
IV,  88,  104,  112,  155,  479,  508,  598,  617;  V,  1119,  1121,  1122;  VI,  433,  434,  435. 


14  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

in  conjunction  with  his  friends,  he  had  induced  431  men  to  sign 
for  enlistment  in  Butler's  Rangers,  whose  headquarters  were  at 
Fort  Niagara,  but  that  these  recruits  were  obliged  to  disperse 
when  one  of  their  number  turned  informer.  Maggee  first  went  to 
Philadelphia  and  in  1778  to  Nova  Scotia.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
William  Pickard  and  his  two  sons  of  Westmoreland  County  signed 
Maggee's  agreement,  for  we  find  them  joining  Butler's  Rangers  in 
1777.  Alexander  Robertson,  an  Indian  trader,  who  was  one  of 
those  caught  planning  to  destroy  the  powder  magazine  on  the  upper 
Ohio,  also  fled  in  the  same  year.3 

The  closing  scene  in  the  conspiracy  of  1777  was  enacted  at 
Pittsburgh,  March  28,  1778,  when  Captain  Alexander  McKee,  Mat 
thew  Elliott,  Simon  Girty,  Robert  Surphlitt,  John  Higgins,  and 
McKee's  two  negroes  made  their  escape.  Captain  McKee  was  the 
deputy  superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  at  Fort  Pitt,  Surphlitt 
was  his  cousin,  and  Higgins  appears  to  have  been  one  of  his  serv 
ants.  Simon  Girty  had  long  acted  as  interpreter  for  the  Six  Na 
tions.  During  a  considerable  time  both  McKee  and  Girty  had  been 
regarded  as  suspicious  characters  and,  after  an  investigation  into 
the  alarming  situation  on  the  Western  frontier  by  a  commission 
appointed  by  Congress,  these  two  men  and  one  other  had  been 
placed  under  arrest  for  a  brief  period  in  the  autumn  of  1777.  In 
Matthew  Elliott,  who  was  an  Indian  trader,  the  little  party  of 
fugitives  had  a  guide  who  knew  the  route  to  Detroit.  The  trail 
followed  by  these  Loyalists  led  through  what  is  now  southern 
Ohio,  by  way  of  Coshocton  and  Old  Chillicothe  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Scioto  River  (the  site  of  the  present  village  of  Westfall) 
and  thence  through  the  Wyandot  towns  on  the  Sandusky  River  to 
their  destination.  At  the  Shawnee  village  of  Old  Chillicothe  Mc 
Kee  and  his  followers  found  James  Girty,  whom  they  persuaded  to 
join  them  later  at  Detroit.  Shortly  after  their  arrival  at  this  Brit 
ish  post,  Lieutenant  Governor  Henry  Hamilton  appointed  McKee 
deputy  agent  for  Indian  Affairs,  Elliott  captain  in  the  Indian 
Department,  and  Simon  Girty  interpreter  and  agent  in  the  secret 
service.  Thus,  these  men  were  afforded  full  opportunity  to  insti 
gate  and  take  a  leading  part  in  operations  against  the  frontier 


'Thwaites  and  Kellogg,  Frontier  Defense  on  the  Upper  Ohio,  X,  14,  21-24,  33-42,  46, 
61-53,  64-68,  70,  142-145,  184-187,  260;  Jour,  of  Cong,  (new  ed.),  IX,  831,  942-944,  1018;  Sec. 
Rep.  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.,  (1904),  Pt.  I,  537;  Pt.  II,  963,  964;  Pt.  I,  150. 


THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO  15 

which  they  had  left  but  recently/  That  there  were  other  acces 
sions  at  Detroit  of  Loyalists  from  Pittsburgh  during  this  period 
appears  probable  from  the  statement  of  Brigadier  General  Edward 
Hand,  who  wrote  from  the  latter  post,  April  24,  1778,  to  General 
Horatio  Gates,  complaining  that  since  the  18th  of  the  preceding 
January  forty  men  had  deserted  from  his  small  garrison,  including 
fourteen  who  had  disappeared  on  the  night  of  April  23d,  taking 
with  them  a  party  of  the  country  people.  Hand  added  that  he  had 
detached  four  officers  and  forty  men  in  pursuit.  One  of  the  forty 
deserters  to  whom  Hand  referred  was  Henry  Butler,  who  arrived 
at  Kaskasia  on  the  Mississippi  near  the  close  of  the  preceding 
February.  James  Girty  made  his  appearance  at  Detroit  in  August, 
1778,  and  was  at  once  appointed  interpreter  for  the  Shawnee. 
Nearly  a  year  later  George  Girty  came  in.  He  had  been  a  prisoner 
for  twelve  months  at  New  Orleans,  whence  he  had  journeyed  by 
a  long  and  arduous  path  through  the  Indian  country.  He  also  was 
made  an  interpreter  in  the  Indian  Department  at  Detroit.5 

The  numerous  flights  from  Pittsburgh  and  its  vicinity  since 
the  days  of  Dunmore's  War  had  removed  those  Loyalists  best  qual 
ified  to  lead  in  regaining  control  of  the  upper  Ohio  for  the  Crown. 
Connolly,  McKee,  and  the  others  had  thenceforth  to  labor  under 
the  great  disadvantage  of  forming  their  plots  and  attempting  their 
expeditions  at  long  range  against  a  foe  that  was  familiar  with 
their  purposes  and  methods,  and  that  was  ever  alert  to  thwart 
them.  There  was  still,  however,  a  considerable  body  of  Tories  on 
the  upper  Ohio,  despite  the  desertions  of  March  and  April,  1778, 
from  Fort  Pitt.  With  the  spread  of  the  rumor  in  the  early  part 
of  1779  that  the  Loyalists  and  Indians  at  Detroit  were  preparing 
to  penetrate  to  Pittsburgh,  Hugh  Kelly  of  Maryland  betook  him 
self  to  the  neighboring  Red  Stone  settlement  and  enlisted  175  men ; 
while  his  associate,  James  Fleming  of  Frederick  County,  Va., 
raised  75  recruits  at  Kittanning.  According  to  the  formal  state 
ment  that  was  submitted  by  Fleming  and  Kelly  to  the  authorities 
in  London  toward  the  end  of  the  Revolution,  the  work  of  organiz 
ing  the  Loyalists  was  extended  by  them  into  the  adjacent  portions 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  through  the  agency  of  Adam  Graves, 


*  Thwaites  and  Kellogg,  Frontier  Defense  on  the  Upper  Ohio,  249-255,  260,  n.  14 ;  Hecke- 
welder's  Narrative,  182 ;  Thwaites  and  Kellogg,  Rev.  on  the  Upper  Ohio,  74,  75 ;  Sec.  Rep., 
Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.,  (1904),  Pt.  II,  985,  987,  988,  1082,  1282. 

8  Thwaites  and  Kellogg,  Frontier  Defense  on  the  Upper  Ohio,  247,  278,  279,  286,  234, 
n.,  98;  Sec.  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  (1904),  Pt.  II,  988,  1284. 


16  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

John  George  Graves,  and  Nicholas  Andrews,  all  of  Maryland,  with 
the  result  that  up  to  June,  1781,  nearly  1,300  volunteers  were 
bound  by  oath  to  serve  at  call  in  a  corps  which  they  proposed  to 
name  the  Maryland  Royal  Retaliators.  Curiously  enough,  our  in 
formants  nowhere  intimate  that  they  had  received  commissions 
authorizing  them  to  embody  these  men;  and  since  the  enlistment 
of  the  proposed  corps  never  got  beyond  the  provisional  stage — 
according  to  their  own  admission — we  can  find  no  record  of  it  in 
the  Muster  Rolls  of  the  Loyalist,  or  Provincial,  Regiments.  Ac 
cording  to  the  plan  of  campaign,  as  developed  by  the  summer  of 
1781,  General  Johnson  was  to  operate  with  a  large  force  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Pittsburgh,  and  Colonel  Connolly  was  to  return 
from  the  region  north  of  the  James  River  and  assist  Johnson. 
Large  numbers  of  British  prisoners  confined  in  Winchester,  Stras- 
burg,  Leesburg,  Sharpsburg,  Fort  Frederick,  and  Fredericktown, 
Va.,  were  to  be  released;  the  Tories  of  Somerset  and  Worcester 
counties  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  were  to  be  aided, 
should  their  petition  meet  with  favor,  by  an  expedition  to  be  sent 
by  General  Leslie  from  Portsmouth,  Va.,  to  the  Chesapeake,  and 
the  sea  coast  was  to  be  molested  by  the  privateers  of  the  Associ 
ated  Loyalists  sent  out  from  New  York. 

This  extended  plan,  as  it  happened,  broke  down  at  two  points : 
the  appeal  of  the  Eastern  Shore  Tories  to  General  Leslie  was  inter 
cepted;  and  the  papers  revealing  the  project  and  names  of  the 
Loyalist  leaders  of  Frederick  County  were  delivered  by  mistake 
to  an  American  officer  in  Fredericktown,  with  the  result — ac 
cording  to  Kelly  and  Fleming's  account — that  170  of  their  associ 
ates  were  at  once  arrested.  Of  these,  Adam  and  John  George 
Graves,  Nicholas  Andrews,  and  four  others  were  tried  before  a 
special  court,  July  25,  1781,  and  found  guilty  of  high  treason. 
Three  of  the  seven  were  executed  at  Fredericktown ;  Andrews, 
the  two  Graves  brothers,  and  Fleming  managed  in  some  manner 
to  escape  to  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  whence  they  were  fortunate 
enough  to  find  their  way  to  New  York  after  the  surrender,  which 
occurred  on  October  19,  1781.  At  New  York  they  found  Kelly,  who 
had  preceded  them  thither.  Meanwhile,  the  General  Court  at  An 
napolis  rendered  the  judgment  of  outlawry  against  about  100  lead 
ing  Loyalists,  some  of  whom  were  from  Baltimore  County,  and  at 
later  periods  against  about  80  others  from  various  localities  in 


THE  LOYALISTS  ON  THE  UPPER  OHIO  17 

Maryland,  including  Frederick,  Charles,  Kent,  Montgomery,  Som 
erset,  and  Worcester  counties.0 

With  the  exception  of  several  of  the  leaders,  it  is  impossible 
to  trace  the  fugitives  from  the  upper  Ohio  to  the  localities  where 
they  settled  after  the  return  of  peace.  Hugh  Kelly  was  in  Halifax 
in  December,  1785,  where  he  made  representations  of  his  losses 
before  one  of  the  British  Commissioners  on  Loyalist  Claims;  and 
it  is  probable  that  one  or  more  of  his  intimates  and  some  of  his 
followers  were  also  in  Nova  Scotia.  Alexander  McKee,  Simon 
Girty,  and  a  few  of  the  Loyalists  who  had  taken  refuge  at  Fort 
Detroit  secured  deeds  from  the  Ottawa  Indians  to  Colchester  and 
Gosfield  townships  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie  east  of  the  Detroit 
River,  and  opened  them  to  settlement.  The  transfer  of  "The  Two 
Connected  Townships"  thus  effected  was  irregular,  and  had  to  be 
rectified  by  a  reconveyance  of  the  districts  from  the  Indians  to  the 
Canadian  Government.  In  1788  the  two  townships  were  laid  out 
in  one  hundred  and  nine  lots,  and  during  the  next  five  years  the 
settlers  who  had  previously  entered  the  tract  were  confirmed  in 
the  possession  of  their  properties.  Thus,  arose  "The  New  Settle 
ment,"  which  began  about  five  miles  east  of  the  Detroit  River  and 
extended  for  a  distance  three  times  as  great  along  the  lake  front 
to  the  eastward.  Some  of  those  who  drew  lots  in  the  two  town 
ships  did  not  locate  there,  going  instead  to  the  River  Thames, 
where  the  soil  was  of  a  better  quality;  while  others,  to  the  num 
ber  of  a  hundred  or  more,  became  discouraged  on  account  of  the 
long  delays  in  obtaining  provisions  and  tools  from  the  govern 
ment,  and  returned  to  the  United  States.  The  region  next  to  the 
Detroit  River  remained  for  a  time  unsettled,  partly  because  of  its 
marshy  character  and  partly  on  account  of  doubtful  claims.  In 
January,  1793,  however,  John  Graves  Simcoe,  formerly  colonel  of 
the  Queen's  Rangers,  one  of  the  Loyalist  Corps,  and  now  lieuten 
ant  governor  of  Ontario,  took  action,  along  with  his  council,  by 
which  this  tract  was  constituted  the  township  of  Maiden  and  was 
granted  to  Alexander  McKee,  Matthew  Elliott,  and  Captain  Wil 
liam  Caldwell.  The  settlers  who  had  already  made  improvements  in 
the  new  township  were  secured  in  their  holdings  at  the  same  time. 


6  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  Ill,  6.  46,  47 ;  I,  20 ;  IV,  241 ;  Sec. 
Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.,  (1904),  Pt.  I,  55,  56;  Scharf,  Hist,  of  Md.,  II.  366-368;  Siebert, 
"The  Tories  of  the  Upper  Ohio"  in  Bien.  Rep.,  Archives  and  Hist.,  W.  Va.,  (1911-1914),  45,  46. 


18  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Captain  Caldwell,  it  may  be  added,  was  one  of  Colonel  John  But 
ler's  Rangers  from  Fort  Niagara.7 

7  See.  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.  (1904),  Pt.  I,  65;  Third  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives, 
Ont.  (1906),  222,  223;  Siebert,  "The  Dispersion  of  the  American  Tories,"  in  the  Miss.  Valley 
Hist.  Rev.,  I,  189,  190. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LOYALISTS  OF  NORTHEASTERN 
PENNSYLVANIA 

There  was  a  considerable  Loyalist  element  among  the  early 
settlers  on  the  upper  Delaware  and  upper  Susquehanna  rivers 
in  northeastern  Pennsylvania.  This  was  especially  true  of  the 
Germans  of  the  Susquehanna,  among  whom  the  proportion  of  Loy-U 
alists  was  larger,  so  far  as  our  scanty  evidence  indicates,  than 
among  their  neighbors  of  the  English  and  Irish  nationalities. 
Various  things  suggest  that  the  strife  between  the  Whigs  and 
Tories  of  Tryon  County,  New  York,  which  centered  at  Johnstown 
in  the  lower  Mohawk  Valley  and  resulted  in  the  flight  of  the  John 
sons  to  Canada  in  August,  1775,  was  not  without  effect  beyond  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  Province.  One  of  the  refugees  from 
Johnstown  was  John  Butler,  who  was  sent  by  the  Canadian  au 
thorities  to  Fort  Niagara  in  the  following  November.  Other  Loy 
alists  also  made  their  way  to  this  British  outpost,  including  John 
Depue,  who  arrived  during  the  winter  of  1776-77,  bringing  let 
ters  from  seventy  of  his  neighbors  on  the  Susquehanna  proposing 
to  enlist  as  rangers  under  Butler's  command.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  suggestion  of  the  formation  of  a  corps  of  armed 
frontiersmen  and  raiders  at  Niagara ;  although  it  was  not  the  first 
time  that  Butler  had  held  communication  with  these  persons,  for 
he  had  already  invited  them  to  come  to  the  fort.  Among  the  earli 
est  of  the  group  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  new  regiment  were  Depue 
himslf ,  Frederick  Auger  and  his  two  sons,  and  Hendrick  Windron. 
Mr.  Windron  relates  that  he  was  accompanied  on  his  journey  from 
the  Susquehanna  to  Niagara  by  his  wife  and  children  and  several 
other  families  of  Loyalists.1 

In  the  spring  of  1777,  not  long  after  the  Pennsylvania  As 
sembly  had  passed  an  act  defining  treason  and  misprision  of  trea 
son,  Philip  Bender  and  the  Loyalists  of  his  settlement  made  the 
long  and  arduous  journey  of  several  hundred  miles  to  Fort  Ni 
agara.  Others  who  testify  that  they  went  in  the  same  year  are 


1  Siebert,   "The  Loyalists   and  Six   Nation   Indians   in   the  Niagara   Peninsula"   in    Trans. 
Roy.  Soe.  Can.,  IX   (1915),  80,  81,  and  references  there  given. 

19 


20  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

William  Pickard  and  his  two  sons,  Casper  Hover  and  his  three 
sons,  Abraham  Wartman,  Conrad  Sills,  Henry  Lyman,  William 
Vanderlip,  and  George  Kentner,  all  of  whom  enlisted  in  the  Rang 
ers.  It  is  very  probable  that  some  of  these  were  members  of  the 
party  with  which  Philip  Bender  went,  and  that  the  fathers  of 
families  were  accompanied  not  merely  by  their  older  sons  but  also 
by  their  wives  and  younger  children.  We  learn  of  but  one  recruit 
from  the  Susquehanna  in  St.  Leger's  expedition,  namely,  Philip 
Buck,  who  joined  it  at  Fort  Stanwix,  although  there  may  have 
been  others.  In  1778  the  movement  to  Niagara  continued  with 
the  flight  of  John  Wintermute,  Thomas  Millard  and  his  three  sons, 
Edward  Turner  and  his  father,  evidently  with  other  families,  and 
Michael  Thomas. 

This  exodus  from  the  Susquehanna  country  had  not  been  left 
to  run  its  own  course,  but  had  been  stimulated  by  the  recruiting 
operations  of  Depue  and  the  Mohawk  chieftain,  Joseph  Brant,  af 
ter  the  defeat  of  St.  Leger.  These  activities  are  explained  by  the 
fact  that  Butler  did  not  receive  permission  to  organize  his  corps 
until  after  the  catastrophe  at  Fort  Stanwix.  They  were  not  con 
fined,  however,  to  the  upper  Susquehanna,  nor  to  the  autumn  of 
1777;  for  early  in  the  following  year  Brant  invaded  the  valley  of 
the  upper  Delaware  and  gathered  in  sixty  or  seventy  of  the  in 
habitants  of  that  region,  while  at  the  time  of  his  descent  on  Wy 
oming  in  the  following  summer,  Butler  gained  an  accession  of 
forty  more  Delaware  Valley  Loyalists.  From  the  fort  at  Wyom 
ing  he  released  a  party  of  adherents  of  the  Crown,  which  took 
the  Indian  trail  through  the  forest  to  Oswego,  and,  embarking 
thence  in  row  boats,  reached  Niagara  after  spending  nine  days  on 
the  waters  of  Lake  Ontario.  Doubtless,  the  other  refugees  pur 
sued  much  the  same  route,  or  accompanied  their  rescuers  on  the 
march  back  to  Fort  Niagara.  By  1779  the  Tory  population  of  the 
upper  Susquehanna  appears  to  have  largely  vanished,  for  we  have 
the  record  of  only  one  flight  from  this  region  in  the  year  just 
named,  that  of  Isaac  Dobson.  As  Dobson  had  been  imprisoned, 
he  was  prevented  from  leaving  earlier.2 

Numbers  of  these  Loyalists  from  northeastern  Pennsylvania 
enlisted  in  the  Rangers,  as  we  have  observed  above ;  and  not  a  few 
of  them  served  under  Colonel  Butler  throughout  the  Revolutionary 


3  Siebert,   "The  Loyalists  and  Six  Nation   Indians   in   the  Niagara   Peninsula"    in    Trant. 
Roy.  Soc.  Can.,  IX   (1915),  82-86.  and  references  there  given. 


LOYALISTS  OF  NORTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  21 

War.  Probably  most  of  them  received  grants  of  land  in  the  Ni 
agara  Peninsula  at  the  close  of  the  contest,  as  did  the  men  of  But 
ler's  corps  in  general  and  the  warriors  of  the  Six  Nations,  who  had 
made  Fort  Niagara  their  base  of  operations  since  the  fall  of  1777. 
A  few  of  the  Pennsylvanians,  however,  soon  drifted  to  other  lo 
calities  ;  and  individuals  among  them  were  to  be  found  living  a  few 
years  after  the  war  at  Fort  Erie,  at  Detroit,  on  the  Bay  of  Quinte, 
in  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  townships  on  the  north  side  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  River,  and  at  Montreal.  In  1787  John  Depue  was  a  resi 
dent  at  Fort  Erie.3 


•Sec.  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.,   (1904).  Pt.  I.  831,  480;  Pt.  II.  968,  968.  970,  973.  974. 
975,  981.  984.  990,  997,  1001.  1008,  1262,  1263;  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Can..  IX    (1916),  95,  ff.,  117.  ff. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  REPRESSION  OF  THE  LOYALISTS  AND   NEUTRALS 
IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA 

In  the  early  months  of  1775  the  division  of  sentiment  in  Penn 
sylvania  over  the  question  of  resistance  to  the  Crown  was  already 
manifest.  The  Convention  of  provincial  delegates,  which  was  then 
in  session,  approved  of  open  resistance;  and  Philadelphians  sus 
pected  of  loyal  proclivities  were  being  silenced  or  driven  out  almost 
daily  by  means  of  advertisements,  handbills,  or  personal  warnings 
which,  if  unheeded,  were  followed  in  extreme  cases  by  the  ap 
plication  of  tar  and  feathers.  'At  the  same  time,  the  Meeting  for 
Sufferings  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  Quakers  issued  a  testi 
mony  against  usurpation  of  authority  and  against  insurrections, 
conspiracies,  and  illegal  assemblies,  this  last  expression  being  ob 
viously  intended  to  include  the  provincial  conventions  and  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  itself.  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  sup 
pose  that  the  Meeting  for  Sufferings  voiced  the  convictions  of  all 
members  of  the  dominant  sect  in  Pennsylvania ;  for  many  of  them 
quietly  gave  financial  support  to  the  Revolution,  and  some  deviated 
from  the  principle  of  non-resistance  to  the  extent  of  joining  the 
association  for  defending  with  arms  the  lives,  liberty,  and  property 
of  the  people,  entering  military  organizations,  and  signing  the  test 
that  was  later  prescribed  by  Congress  and  the  State.1 

The  news  from  Lexington,  which  was  received  in  Philadel 
phia  five  days  after  the  battle,  seems  to  have  produced  a  marked 
effect  upon  the  "Tory  class"  there,  according  to  the  Diary  or  Re 
membrancer  of  Christopher  Marshall,  a  Quaker  patriot  of  the  city, 
who  noted  on  May  7  that  "Their  language  is  quite  softened,  and 
many  of  them  have  so  far  renounced  their  former  sentiments  as 
that  they  have  taken  up  arms,  and  are  joined  in  the  association; 
nay  even  many  of  the  stiff  Quakers,  and  some  of  those  who  drew 
up  the  Testimony  are  ashamed  of  their  proceedings."  It  was,  in 
deed,  soon  after  this  that  a  number  of  young  Friends  formed  a 
company  of  light  infantry  in  the  American  interest,  which  was 


1  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist  of  Phila.,  I,  293,  294,  296,   n.  1. 

22 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  23 

under  the  command  of  Sheriff  Joseph  Cowperthwait,  and  was 
called  the  "Quaker  Blues."  Not  inconsistent  with  Marshall's  state 
ment  regarding  the  changed  conduct  of  the  Philadelphia  Loyalists 
were  the  observations  of  Judge  Samuel  Curwen,  a  fugitive  Tory 
from  Salem,  Mass.,  who  spent  the  week  of  May  5-12  in  the  Quaker 
City.  In  his  search  for  lodgings,  Curwen  became  convinced  that 
the  place  was  pervaded  with  ^congressional  principles"  to  such  a 
degree  that  no  man  there  dared  express  a  doubt  concerning  the 
feasibility  of  the  projects  of  Congress,  and  that  the  inhabitants 
were  displeased  with  New  Englanders  for  making  the  town  their 
haven  of  refuge.  These  views  and  the  advice  of  his  friend  Judge 
Joseph  Lee,  a  lukewarm  Tory  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  who  was  lead 
ing  the  life  of  a  recluse  in  Philadelphia,  induced  Mr.  Curwen  to  re- 
embark,  this  time  for  London,  Eng.,  where  he  arrived  on  July  3.2 
Meantime,  in  keeping  with  the  suggestion  of  Benjamin  Frank 
lin,  a  Committee  of  Safety  supplanted  the  Committee  of  Corre 
spondence  on  June  30,  being  given  discretionary  powers  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Assembly.  In  employing  these  powers  it  dealt  more 
severely  with  suspected  and  inimical  persons  than  its  predecessor 
had  done.  The  new  committee  required  well-known  or  self -acknowl 
edged  Loyalists,  like  Amos  Wickersham,  Mordecai  Levy,  John  Ber 
gen,  and  Thomas  Loosley,  to  confess  and  recant  their  errors;  and 
it  was  soon  ordered  by  Congress  to  prevent  the  departure  of  all 
persons  who  were  likely  to  do  injury  to  the  American  cause.  On 
August  12,  the  committee  compelled  Terence  McDermot,  "a  vol 
unteer"  in  the  King's  army,  and  two  officers,  who  were  on  their  way 
to  join  the  British  forces  in  Boston,  to  sign  an  agreement  not  to 
bear  arms  against  the  United  Colonies  for  one  year  or  until  ex 
changed;  after  which  they  were  conveyed  to  Washington's  camp 
at  Cambridge,  Mass.  Isaac  Hunt,  who  was  defending  a  suit  for 
the  replevin  of  some  forbidden  goods  for  the  avowed  Loyalist, 
William  Conn,  was  summoned  before  the  Committee  of  Inspection ; 
but  on  refusing  to  discontinue  the  suit  or  apologize,  he  was  carted 
through  the  streets  behind  a  drum  and  fife  playing  the  Rogue's 
March.  The  procession  stopped  before  the  home  of  Dr.  John 
Kearsley,  Jr.,  an  uncompromising  Tory,  who  became  so  furious  at 
the  spectacle  that  he  snapped  his  pistol  at  the  crowd.  Mr.  Hunt 


2  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  300,  301  ;  Duane,  ed..  Extracts  from  the  Diary 
of  Christopher  Marshall;  Sargent,  ed.,  Loyal  Verses  of  Jos.  Stansbury  and  Dr.  Jonathan  Odftt, 
133 ;  Curwln,  Journal  and  Letters,  25-30.  487. 


24  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

appears  to  have  seized  this  opportunity  to  ask  the  pardon  of  his 
persecutors,  who  released  him  and  mounted  Kearsley  upon  the  cart 
in  his  place.  Hunt  soon  after  fled  to  England;  and  although  his 
substitute  was  let  go  without  an  apology,  which  he  refused  to  give, 
he  was  apprehended,  together  with  several  others,  early  in  Octo 
ber,  on  the  evidence  of  certain  intercepted  letters,  which  showed 
that  he  was  endeavoring  to  bring  about  an  invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania  by  the  British  troops,  besides  engaging  in  other  inimical 
practices.  After  trial  by  the  Committee  of  Safety  Kearsley  was 
sent  to  York  as  a  prisoner  and  died  there  during  the  war.  The 
largest  group  of  Loyalists  that  the  committee  ordered  imprisoned 
during  this  year  was  brought  in  at  the  end  of  October  from  the 
New  Jersey  shore.  It  comprised  Captain  Duncan  Campbell,  Lieu 
tenant  James  S.  Symes,  and  twenty-three  privates  of  the  Royal 
Highland  Emigrants,  a  corps  but  recently  formed,  who  were 
stranded  while  on  their  voyage  from  Boston  to  New  York,  were 
captured,  and  brought  before  the  committee  in  Philadelphia.  They 
were  incarcerated  in  the  jail  and  workhouse,  the  first  prisoners  of 
war  to  be  confined  in  the  Quaker  City  during  the  Revolution.3 

Regardless  of  the  suspicions  already  existing,  and  certain  to 
be  increased,  concerning  their  neutrality,  the  Quakers,  Menonists, 
and  Dunkards  or  German  Baptists,  who  enjoyed  certain  exemp 
tions  at  the  hands  of  Congress,  memorialized  the  Pennsylvania 
Assembly  at  this  time  in  opposition  to  the  general  order  for  the 
enrollment  of  the  militia.  Thereupon,  the  Committee  of  Safety 
marched  to  the  State  House,  carrying  a  remonstrance  against  the 
Quaker  address,  which  was  declared  to  present  an  aspect  unfriendly 
to  the  liberties  of  America  and  destructive  of  society  and  govern 
ment.  The  remonstrance  further  alleged  that  "these  gentlemen 
want  to  withdraw  their  persons  and  their  fortunes  from  the  serv 
ice  of  the  country  at  a  time  when  their  country  stands  most  in 
need  of  them."  The  association  also  sent  in  a  remonstrance,  de 
nouncing  leniency  to  the  lukewarm  as  nothing  less  than  a  fatal  mis 
take.  At  length,  in  November,  the  Assembly  went  on  record  by 
making  defensive  service  compulsory  and  "taxing  all  non-asso- 
ciators  £2  10s  above  the  regular  assessment."  This  action,  along 
with  other  developments  of  the  time,  only  served  to  embolden  the 


«  Colon.  Records  of  Pa..  X,  280,  302,  342,  343,  359,  360,  367,  372,  373,  880,  385,  386,  410  ; 
Raymond,  ed.,  Winslow  Papers,  42,  n: ;  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  G.  Brit.,  II,  79 ; 
Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  295,  303. 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  25 

Quakers,  for  their  Yearly  Meeting  published  a  testimony,  which 
was  adopted  January  20,  1776,  advising  the  members  of  the  so 
ciety  to  stand  firm  in  their  allegiance  and  unite  against  every  de 
sign  of  independence.  Not  content  with  testimonies  and  memorials, 
Quaker  merchants  and  traders,  as  well  as  a  few  others,  were  in 
some  instances  required  to  apologize  for  breaches  of  the  regulations 
established  by  the  Committee  of  Inspection  relating  to  the  admis 
sion  and  prices  of  commodities,  especially  of  foodstuffs;  while  in 
other  instances  they  were  denounced  as  enemies  and  excluded  from 
all  trade  or  intercourse  with  the  other  inhabitants,  because  they 
refused  to  accept  Continental  currency.4 

v  Besides  these  local  offenders  who  were  dealt  with  by  the  two 
committees,  there  were  others  from  distant  parts  of  the  Province 
or  from  other  Colonies  who  had  been  captured  and  sent  to  Con 
gress  for  adequate  punishment,  and  were  handed  over  by  that 
body  to  the  Committee  of  Safety  for  examination  and  sentence  or 
for  incarceration,  as  the  case  might  be.  Of  such  were  some  of  the 
Tory  prisoners  who  were  transferred  from  the  old  prison  to  the 
new  one  in  Philadelphia  in  January,  1776,  including  the  notorious 
Dr.  John  Connolly  and  his  two  confederates,  Dr.  John  Ferdinand 
Dalziel  Smyth  of  Maryland  and  Allen  Cameron  of  the  Cherokee 
country,  besides  Colonel  Moses  Kirkland  of  South  Carolina,  who 
had  been  taken  on  his  voyage  to  Boston ;  General  Donald  McDonald, 
chief  of  the  North  Carolina  Tories;  Colonel  Allen  McDonald,  and 
"twenty-five  more  of  their  set."  In  the  following  May,  Colonel  Kirk- 
land  was  enabled  to  escape  by  the  aid  of  several  local  Loyalists,  in 
cluding  Arthur  Thomas  and  his  sons,  who  were  constrained  to  flee 
when  a  mob  attacked  their  house.  Mr.  Thomas  tells  us  that  he 
avoided  seizure  by  taking  his  departure  in  the  night,  that  he  re 
mained  in  concealment  for  several  weeks,  but  was  caught  in  July 
and  imprisoned.  He  also  says  that  he  succeeded  in  getting  away  to 
New  York  in  the  following  September.  A  year  later,  however,  Mr. 
Thomas  returned  to  Philadelphia,  on  learning  that  the  British 
army  had  taken  possession  of  the  city.  Arthur  Thomas,  Jr.,  was 
also  caught  and  imprisoned.  Besides  the  Thomases,  other  Tories, 
either  singly  or  in  small  groups,  were  brought  before  the  Commit 
tee  of  Safety  during  the  year  1776,  thirty-three  of  these  being  se 
cured  in  New  York  in  October.5 


*  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist  of  Phila.,  I,  302,  305. 

*  Ibid.,  305,  326;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.   (1904),  Pt.  I,  613;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa., 
X,  461,  466,  469,  4TO,  472,  477,  485,  502,  616,  618,  638,   661,  662,  676,  731,  756,   778. 


26  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Meanwhile,  the  outspoken  Loylists  of  other  communities  in 
the  State  were  being  looked  after  by  their  local  committees  of 
safety.  Thus,  for  example,  on  July  21,  1775,  John  Huff,  Thomas 
Meredith,  and  Thomas  Smith  were  reported  to  the  committee  of 
Bucks  County  as  having  uttered  expressions  derogatory  to  the 
American  cause.  Huff  at  once  appeared  before  the  committee,  ac 
knowledged  the  charge,  and  made  such  concessions  as  were  deemed 
a  sufficient  atonement.  The  accusations  against  the  other  two  men 
were  referred  to  a  sub-committee  for  investigation,  and  on  August 
21,  Meredith's  written  apology  was  read,  accepted,  and  ordered 
published.  In  it  the  writer  not  only  repented  of  what  he  had  done, 
but  also  "voluntarily"  renounced  his  former  principles  and  prom 
ised  henceforth  to  render  his  conduct  unexceptionable  to  his  coun 
trymen  by  strictly  adhering  to  the  measures  of  Congress.  Thomas 
Smith  of  Upper  Makefield  was  much  less  submissive  than  his  of 
fending  brethren.  At  first  he  denied  most  of  what  was  alleged 
against  him ;  but  the  committee,  refusing  to  be  satisfied  with  this, 
proceeded  to  examine  several  witnesses,  as  well  as  the  defendant 
himself,  and  then  ordered  jbq  statement  published  that  Mr.  Smith 
had  declared  in  substance,m,That  the  Measures  of  Congress  had  al 
ready  enslaved  America  and  done  more  Damage  than  all  the  Acts 
of  Parliament  ever  intended  to  lay  upon  us,  that  the  whole  was 
nothing  but  a  scheme  of  a  parcel  of  hot-headed  Presbyterians  and 
that  he  believed  the  Devil  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole ;  that  the 
taking  up  Arms  was  the  most  scandalous  thing  a  man  could  be 
guilty  of  and  more  heinous  than  an  hundred  of  the  grossest  offences 
against  the  moral  law,  etc.,  etc.,  etc^yTogether  with  these  opinions 
of  the  accused,  the  committee's  sentence  was  also  to  be  published, 
namely,  that  "the  said  Thomas  Smith  be  considered  as  an  Enemy 
of  the  Rights  of  British  America,  and  that  all  persons  break  off 
every  kind  of  dealing  with  him  until  he  shall  make  proper  satis 
faction  to  this  Committee  for  his  conduct."  Before  this  case  ap 
peared  in  the  press,  Thomas  Smith  expressed  his  penitence  and  re 
morse  and  presented  a  satisfactory  recantation  in  writing  to  the 
committee.  Other  instances,  in  which,  however,  submission  was 
always  promptly  made,  are  scattered  through  the  minutes  of  the 
committee  until  July,  1776.  From  the  first  of  that  month  until  the 
12th  of  August,  when  the  records  come  to  an  abrupt  conclusion, 
the  last  four  meetings  of  the  committee  dealt  with  a  few  offences 
committed  by  Loyalists  against  the  resolutions  passed  by  the  As- 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  27 

sembly  early  in  the  preceding  April,  which  provided  for  the  dis 
arming  of  disaffected  persons  and  non-associators  and  the  supply 
ing  of  the  confiscated  arms  to  such  Continental  troops  as  should 
be  raised  in  the  Colony.6 

Towards  the  end  of  April,  1776,  the  election  for  members  of 
the  General  Assembly  was  held.  The  result  of  the  canvass  in  Phila 
delphia,  which  had  been  preceded  by  much  excitement,  was  of  es 
pecial  significance.  By  a  combination  of  the  local  Tories  and  Mod 
erates,  or  as  Christopher  Marshall  summed  up  the  elements  of  the 
coalition,  "the  Quakers,  papists,  church,  Allen  family,  with  all  the 
proprietary  party,"  the  Whigs  were  beaten.  In  reality,  however, 
as  was  soon  to  appear,  the  Tories  and  their  friends  had  overreached 
themselves.  The  patriots  were  now  more  than  ever  determined  to 
overthrow  the  charter  and  the  proprietary  government,  and  to 
establish  in  its  place  a  government  founded  on  majority  rule.  In 
dependence  was  already  recognized  by  the  opposing  parties  to  be 
the  definite  object  of  the  war.7 

With  the  development  of  these  conditions  in  Philadelphia,  some 
of  the  influential  conservatives  turned  from  public  affairs  in  the 
city  in  order  to  seek  retirement  in  outlying  villages.  Others  of  no 
political  prominence,  but  whose  minds  were  equally  filled  with 
fears,  removed  with  their  families  to  places  that  promised  greater 
personal  security  than  did  the  capital.  Thus,  early  in  May,  1776, 
Thomas  Bartow,  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia,  took  his  wife  and  five 
children  to  Bethlehem,  where  he  made  his  home  for  the  next  three 
years.  Of  the  four  sons  of  Chief  Justice  William  Allen — brothers- 
in-law  of  Governor  John  Penn — James  withdrew  with  his  small 
family  to  Allentown  in  Northampton  County,  June  16;  John  and 
his  family  went  about  the  same  time  to  Union  Iron  Works  in 
Hunterdon  County,  N.  J. ;  Andrew  retired  soon  after  to  his  place 
at  Neshaminy,  and  William,  returning  from  Ticonderoga  shortly 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  resigned  his  commission 
as  lieutenant-colonel  of  militia.8 

But  most  of  the  Tory  residents  continued  in  Philadelphia  and, 
as  they  had  held  their  political  meetings  before  the  election,  so  now 
they  held  congratulatory  and  convivial  sessions.  At  the  end  of 
May,  the  Committee  of  Safety  received  confidential  information 


6  Pa.   Mag.   of   Hist,   and   Biog.,   XV,    263,    265-270,   273,    275,    277,    279-281,    283,    285,  286, 
289,  290. 

7  Scharf  and   Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila,  I,   811. 

8  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.,   1889,  388 ;  July,   1885,   187,   190   191  ;  Am.  Arch^   6th 
Ser.,  Ill,   1280,  1281,  1377,  1397,  1434. 


28  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

according  to  Marshall's  Diary,  of  not  less  than  four  different  Tory 
clubs  that  were  meeting  frequently,  one  at  the  Widow  Ball's  in 
Lombard  Street,  another  at  the  sign  of  the  Pennsylvania  Farmer, 
the  third  at  Jones's  beer  house  on  the  dock,  and  the  fourth  at  the 
sign  of  the  King's  Arms.  The  impartation  of  this  piece  of  informa 
tion  led  to  the  immediate  appointment  of  a  Committee  of  Secrecy, 
including  Mr.  Marshall  and  seven  others,  to  examine  all  inimical 
and  suspected  persons  of  whom  the  committee  might  learn.  The 
labors  of  the  new  committee  resulted  in  a  number  of  arrests  and 
imprisonments,  among  those  committeed  being  James  Prescott, 
William  Smith,  Joseph  Stansbury  (the  Tory  poet),  David  Shoe 
maker,  and  others.9 

Early  in  June,  1776,  the  Committee  of  Inspection  was  engaged 
in  correspondence  with  the  local  committees  of  safety  for  the  pur 
pose  of  having  them  send  some  of  their  members  to  the  Provincial 
Conference,  which  was  to  meet  in  Philadelphia  on  the  18th  to  ar 
range  for  the  election  of  members  to  a  Constitutional  Convention. 
On  July  8  this  election  was  held,  and  later  in  the  same  month  the 
Convention  met  to  frame  a  constitution  for  Pennsylvania.  Under 
the  guiding  hand  of  its  president,  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  Con 
vention  supplanted  the  General  Assembly,  which  finally  passed  out 
of  existence  on  September  26.  On  July  19  it  passed  an  ordinance 
requiring  the  commanding  officers  of  the  militia  to  appraise  and 
take  over  such  arms  as  the  non-associators  in  their  respective  dis 
tricts  had  failed  to  deliver  up  according  to  the  earlier  resolutions 
of  Congress  and  the  Provincial  Assembly,  and  to  arm  the  associ- 
ators  with  the  weapons  thus  secured.  During  the  early  days  of 
September  the  Convention  passed  two  ordinances  that  were  in 
tended  to  limit  the  dangerous  activities  of  the  Loyalists.  The  first 
of  these  declared  that  every  person  owing  allegiance  to  the  State 
who,  after  the  publication  of  the  present  decree,  should  levy  war 
against  the  Commonwealth  or  give  aid  to  the  enemy,  either  within 
the  State  or  elsewhere,  and  be  convicted  thereof,  should  be  ad 
judged  guilty  of  high  treason  and  should  forfeit  his  lands,  tene 
ments,  goods,  and  chattels,  besides  being  imprisoned  for  any  term 
not  exceeding  the  duration  of  the  war.  The  second  ordinance  pro 
vided  that  any  person  within  the  State,  who  should  endeavor  by 
writing  or  speaking  to  obstruct  the  measures  of  the  United  States 


8  Sargent,   ed.,  Loyal  Verses  of  Jos.  Stansbury  and  Dr.   Jonathan  Odell,   117,    122  ;   Duane, 
«d.f  Extracts  from  the  Diary  of  Christopher  Marshall,  80,  81. 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  29 

in  defense  of  freedom,  should,  on  the  production  of  proper  proof, 
give  security  for  his  good  behavior,  or  stand  committed  until  the 
security  was  forthcoming,  or  he  was  otherwise  legally  discharged. 
If,  however,  the  offender  was  considered  to  be  too  dangerous  for 
release  by  bail,  the  justice  was  to  associate  with  himself  two  other 
justices  of  the  neighborhood,  and  they  together  were  to  fix  the 
term  of  imprisonment,  provided  it  did  not  extend  beyond  the  end 
of  the  war.  The  Convention  also  deposed  Governor  John  Penn, 
and  ignored  the  proprietary  government.  Meanwhile,  it  had  elected 
a  Council  of  Safety  on  July  22,  thus  dissolving  the  Committee  of 
Safety ;  but  it  did  not  disturb  the  Committee  of  Inspection  for  the 
present.  The  Council  of  Safety  continued  to  exercise  its  functions 
until  March  4,  1777,  when  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  which 
was  provided  for  in  the  constitution,  assumed  control.10 

There  was,  then,  to  be  no  respite  for  the  Tories  and  suspected 
persons  in  Pennsylvania;  and  in  truth  the  Tories  did  not  conduct 
themselves  in  such  a  way,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  by  Congress,  as  to  conciliate  the  revolutionary  party. 
They  exposed  themselves  to  the  danger  of  arrest,  and  were  incar 
cerated  daily.  Furthermore,  their  position  was  made  the  more  diffi 
cult  by  the  action  of  the  new  Assembly,  which  proceeded  on  Febru 
ary  11,  1777,  to  supply  somewhat  fuller  definitions  of  treason  and 
misprision  of  treason  than  the  Constitutional  Convention  had  done 
in  the  preceding  September.  In  the  middle  of  July  numbers  of 
Whig  associators  were  sent  into  New  Jersey  to  help  defend  that 
region  against  the  anticipated  British  invasion.  It  was  not,  how 
ever,  until  the  beginning  of  November  that  Howe  began  his  march 
into  the  Jerseys,  signalizing  the  event  by  a  proclamation  of  am 
nesty  to  individuals,  which  he  repeated  at  Trenton  on  November 
30.  These  proclamations,  with  the  gloomy  outlook  for  the  Ameri 
can  cause,  are  said  to  have  induced  some  3,000  Jersey  farmers  to 
swear  allegiance  to  the  Crown ;  but  their  effect  reached  beyond  the 
domain  of  the  invaded  Province.  Thus,  for  example,  in  October, 
Gilbert  Hicks  of  Bucks  County  fled  to  Shrewsbury,  N.  J.,  and  in 
the  following  month  to  Trenton;  but  after  Rahl's  defeat  at  the 
latter  place,  January  2,  1777,  he  took  refuge  among  some  Tory 
families,  until  it  was  safe  for  him  to  enter  Philadelphia.  Shortly 
after  Rahl's  defeat,  the  Council  of  Safety  adopted  a  resolution  de- 


1°  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  XV,  279  ;  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  11-12,  18-19  ;  Laws 
of  Pa.,  II,   144-147  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  316,  322,  323. 


30  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

daring  that  every  person  who  was  so  devoid  of  honor,  virtue,  and 
love  of  his  country  as  to  refuse  his  assistance  "at  this  time  of  emi 
nent  public  danger"  might  be  suspected  of  designs  inimical  to  the 
freedom  of  America,  and  that  where  such  designs  were  very  ap 
parent  from  the  conduct  of  individuals,  they  ought  to  be  confined 
during  the  absence  of  the  militia.  The  officers  of  the  State  ware 
directed  to  act  accordingly,  reserving  appeals  to  the  Council,  lit 
was  the  enforcement  of  this  resolution  that  caused  what  James 
Allen  called  in  his  Diary  a  persecution  of  the  Tories,  when — to  use 
his  own  words — "houses  were  broken  open,  people  imprisoned  with 
out  any  color  of  authority  by  private  persons,  and  as  was  said  a 
list  of  200  disaffected  persons  [was]  made  out,  who  were  to  be 
seized,  and  imprisoned  and  sent  off  to  North  Carolina."  In  this  list 
the  Aliens  were  reported  to  be  included.  Under  such  an  apprehen 
sion,  Andrew  and  William  joined  their  brother  John  at  Union  Iron 
Works,  and  the  three  brothers  were  not  long  in  deciding  to  claim 
the  protection  of  Howe's  army  at  Trenton.  Thence,  they  proceeded 
to  New  York  City,  leaving  their  families  behind  them.  Many  more 
influential  citizens  are  said  to  have  gone  over  to  the  enemy  at  this 
time.  One  of  these  was  Joseph  Galloway,  the  talented,  wealthy, 
and  prominent  lawyer  of  Philadelphia  who,  after  being  visited  by 
mobs  that  threatened  him  with  a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers  and  even 
with  hanging,  loaded  some  valuables  into  a  wagon,  quitted  his 
country  home  at  Trevose,  and  in  company  with  several  other  nota 
ble  Loyalists,  made  his  way  to  the  British  camp  at  New  Brunswick, 
N.  J.  James  Allen,  who  had  been  bringing  suspicion  on  himself 
by  entertaining  British  officers  at  Allentown  and  in  other  ways, 
was  arrested  on  December  19  by  an  armed  guard,  which  took  him 
before  the  Council  of  Safety  at  Philadelphia,  where  he  pledged  his 
honor  "not  to  say  or  do  anything  injurious  to  the  Cause  of  Amer 
ica."  After  remaining  in  and  about  the  city  for  several  days  and 
noting  that  the  place  "seemed  almost  deserted  and  resembled  a 
Sunday  in  service  time,"  he  returned  to  Allentown.  The  cause  of 
this  deserted  appearance  in  the  town  was,  of  course,  the  fear  that 
Howe  would  cross  the  Delaware  and  take  possession  of  Philadel 
phia.  About  the  only  people  who  had  not  surrendered  to  the  intense 
excitement  of  the  hour  and  driven  away  with  their  household  goods 
in  such  vehicles  as  could  be  had  to  places  of  refuge  were  some  of 
the  Tories  and  the  Quakers.  In  the  latter  part  of  December,  the 
Society  of  Friends  had  indeed  issued  their  usual  testimony  urging 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  31 

the  faithful  to  exercise  a  patient  spirit  and  Christian  fortitude  in 
refusing  to  submit  "to  the  arbitrary  injunctions  and  ordinances  of 
men  who  assume  to  themselves  the  power  of  compelling  others, 
either  in  person  or  by  assistance,  to  aid  in  carrying  on  war."11 

The  imprisonment  of  Joseph  Stansbury  and  others  of  his  fel 
low-townsmen  at  the  instigation  of  the  Committee  of  Secrecy  had 
occurred  under  such  circumstances  that  the  Council  of  Safety  ap 
pointed  a  committee  of  its  own  members  to  inquire  into  the  causes 
of  their  commitment,  with  a  view  to  determining  the  justice  of  dis 
charging  them  in  case  they  would  declare  their  allegiance  to  the 
State  in  writing.  This  action  does  not  seem  to  have  resulted  in  the 
immediate  release  of  those  concerned. 

Meantime,  there  had  been  much  desertion  among  the  militia, 
and  when  many  of  the  principal  men  in  Colonel  Hunter's  battalion 
of  Berks  County  refused  going  to  join  Washington's  army  in  Jan 
uary,  1777,  the  Council  ordered  the  colonel  to  send  the  ringleaders 
among  the  disaffected  to  Philadelphia  for  discipline.  That  there  was 
also  widespread  disaffection  among  the  Philadelphians  themselves 
appears  from  various  sources,  personal  and  official.  James  Allen 
says  that  Congress  itself  complained  of  this  disloyalty,  although,  as 
he  remarks,  the  people  of  the  city  had  been  favored  with  most  of 
its  official  appointments  and  with  its  presence  from  the  beginning. 
A  notable  instance  of  the  thing  complained  of  came  to  light  in  the 
early  spring  of  1777  through  the  detection  of  James  Molesworth's 
attempt  to  bribe  pilots  to  navigate  Lord  Howe's  vessels  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia.  Molesworth,  who  had  been  for  several  years 
clerk  to  the  mayor  of  the  city,  turned  out  to  be  a  British  spy  and 
was  hanged  on  the  common  on  March  31.  Five  others,  who  were 
implicated  in  this  business,  made  their  escape.  Others  suspected 
persons  and  Tories  were  severely  dealt  with,  among  these  being 
Major  Richard  V.  Stockton  of  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers,  "the 
famous  land  pilot"  to  the  King's  troops,  who  had  been  surprised 
and  taken  prisoner  on  February  18,  with  about  three  score  privates, 
all  of  whom  were  sent  to  Philadelphia  for  confinement.  Several 
Delaware  Tories,  however,  were  released  on  giving  security.12 


11  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  45-47  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila,.,  I,  326,  829, 
336;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,   XI,  38,   43,  94;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,   and  Biog.,   July,    1885,    193-195; 
Oct.,   1885,   280,  282,   286,   287;   Dec.,    1902,    432,   433;   la   Rep.,    Bur.   of  Archives,   Ont.    (1904), 
Pt.  I,  94  ;  Am.  Arch.  5th  Ser.,  Ill,  1434. 

12  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hut.  of  Phila.,  I,  339  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,   II,  335. 


32  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  difficulty  of  finding  quarters  for  the  new  levies  continually 
pouring  into  Philadelphia  after  the  battles  of  Trenton  and  Prince 
ton  led  to  an  order  billeting  them  on  the  non-associators,  greatly 
to  the  dismay  of  the  local  Tories.  Another  measure  that  proved 
more  generally  disturbing  to  this  class  of  people  was  the  militia 
bill  passed  by  the  Assembly,  June  13,  1777,  for  the  purpose  of  pro 
viding  troops  in  place  of  the  associators.  It  required  all  white  male 
inhabitants  of  the  State  above  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  except 
those  in  the  extreme  western  counties,  to  take  the  oath  of  allegi 
ance  to  Pennsylvania  before  July  1,  1777,  to  promise  to  do  nothing 
to  the  prejudice  of  independence,  and  to  expose  all  conspiracies  and 
treasons  that  might  come  within  their  knowledge.  Persons  failing 
to  take  this  oath  were  declared  to  be  incapable  of  holding  office, 
serving  on  juries,  suing  for  debts,  transferring  real  estate,  and 
were  liable  to  be  disarmed  by  the  county  lieutenants  and  their  dep 
uties,  as  also  to  be  arrested  if  traveling  outside  of  their  respective 
cities  or  counties  without  a  pass.13  James  Allen  reports  that  but 
few  of  his  neighbors  in  the  County  of  Northampton  subscribed  to 
the  oath  of  allegiance  and  that  they  seldom  ventured  from  home 
because  they  ran  "a  risk  of  being  stopt."  Some  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  Moravian  congregation  at  Bethlehem  in  this  county  were 
Tories.  Thus,  the  Reverend  George  Kribel  was  compelled  to  serve 
a  brief  term  in  Easton  jail  in  August,  because  he  refused  to  abjure 
the  King  according  to  the  specific  requirements  of  the  militia  bill ; 
and  John  Francis  Oberlin  was  required  to  resign  the  custody  of 
the  church  store  after  serving  as  its  keeper  for  many  years,  be 
cause  he  hotly  remarked  that  he  "had  sufficient  rope  in  his  store 
to  hang  all  Congress."  At  the  time  of  the  active  search  for  Loyal 
ists  in  the  preceding  December,  word  was  brought  to  Bethlehem 
that  the  place  had  been  represented  to  the  American  army  as  a 
nest  of  Tories  and  that  General  Lee  had  boasted  that  "in  a  few 
hours  he  would  make  an  end  of  Bethlehem."  However,  the  Moravi 
ans  explained  their  own  position  in  a  petition  to  Congress  declar 
ing  that  since  the  outbreak  of  the  conflict  they  had  been  continu 
ally  disturbed  for  not  associating  in  the  use  of  arms,  or  acting 
gainst  their  principles  in  regard  to  war.  They  complained  that 
some  of  them  had  been  imprisoned  on  account  of  the  test  contained 
in  the  law  of  April  1st,  that  all  their  able-bodied  men  above  the 
military  age  had  been  heavily  fined,  and  that  they  found  them- 

18  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  110-114. 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  33 

selves  subject  to  outlawry  and  exile  without  any  inquiry  into  their 
behavior,  although  they  regarded  themselves  as  accountable  to  the 
magistrates.  They  insisted  that  they  willingly  helped  to  bear  the 
public  burdens  and  that  they  were  ready  to  furnish  reasonable  as 
surance  that  they  would  not  act  against  Pennsylvania  or  any  other 
State,  but  that  they  humbly  thought  themselves  entitled  to  the 
privileges  which  had  brought  them  to  America,  notwithstanding 
the  change  in  the  form  of  government.  These  privileges  they  had 
not  forfeited  by  any  word  or  act  against  the  new  government,  they 
said.  At  the  same  time,  if  the  test  was  to  be  applied,  they  must  be 
ruined  and  their  creditors  wronged,  for  it  was  contrary  to  their 
conscience  to  take  the  prescribed  oath.  They  would  with  the  help 
of  God  act  honestly,  not  fearing  the  consequences.  It  may  be  re 
marked  that  as  the  Moravians  had  suffered  under  the  militia  law 
of  April  1st,  they  viewed  with  dismay  the  enactment  of  a  supple 
mentary  measure  by  the  Assembly  on  June  13,  prescribing  a  new 
test  of  allegiance,  a  measure  justified  in  the  eyes  of  the  patriots 
by  the  renewed  prospect  of  Howe's  advance  against  Philadelphia 
The  law  of  June  13,  while  it  re-enacted  most  of  the  provisions  of 
that  of  the  preceding  1st  of  April,  required  justices  of  the  peace  as 
the  administering  officers  of  the  new  oath  of  abjuration  of  the  King 
and  of  allegiance  to  Pennsylvania  as  an  independent  State  to  trans 
mit  to  the  recorders  of  thier  respective  counties  by  October  1  of 
each  year  the  names  of  those  sworn  during  the  preceding  twelve 
months.  Every  person  above  the  age  of  eighteen  years  who  traveled 
out  of  the  county  or  city  in  which  he  usually  resided  was  to  carry  a 
certificate  of  his  allegiance,  or  be  liable  to  arrest  on  suspicion  and 
to  examination  by  the  nearest  justice,  who  was  to  tender  the  oath, 
which  the  suspect  must  take  or  suffer  imprisonment  until  he  would 
consent  to  subscribe.  The  law  said  that  this  clause  was  necessary, 
in  order  to  prevent  the  dissemination  of  discord  by  persons  travel 
ing  from  one  locality  to  another,  and  because  "this  state  is  already 
become  (and  likely  to  be  more  so)  an  asylum  for  refugees  flying 
from  the  just  resentment  of  their  fellow  citizens  in  other  states." 
It  therefore  required  all  newcomers  from  other  Commonwealths 
to  apply  at  once  to  the  nearest  justice  for  the  administering  of  the 
oath  under  the  same  penalty  as  was  provided  in  the  case  of  those 
going  from  place  to  place  within  the  State.14  It  was  doubtless  on 


i*  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,   Oct.,   1885,   287;   Scharf  and  Westcott,    Hist,  of  Phila.,   I, 
341 ;  Jan.,  1889,  401,  395,  385,  386 ;  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  154  ;  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  110-114. 


34  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

account  of  these  laws  that  160  recruits  set  out  from  the  city  for 
Staten  Island  to  join  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers,  a  Loyalist  corps 
under  the  command  of  Brigadier  General  Cortlandt  Skinner,  which 
had  its  headquarters  there.  The  party  was  intercepted,  however, 
near  Bawnbrook  in  the  Jerseys,  and  60  were  taken,  including  Peter 
Snider  and  his  brother  Elias.  The  leaders,  John  Mea  and  James 
Stiff,  were  executed;  and  the  others  appear  to  have  been  impris 
oned  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  Elias  being  confined  for  eighteen 
months  and  Peter  for  six.  The  two  brothers  were  released  on  con 
dition  that  they  would  serve  in  the  Continental  army.  Peter  did  so 
for  three  months  and  then,  after  hiding  out  for  thirty  days,  es 
caped  within  the  lines  of  Howe's  army,  now  in  possession  of  Phila 
delphia.  Elias  secured  a  furlough  on  account  of  sickness,  spent  a 
twelvemonth  in  the  woods  to  avoid  recapture,  and  finally  pushed 
on  to  Staten  Island.15 

On  Sunday,  August  24,  1777,  Washington  at  the  head  of  the 
main  body  of  the  Continental  army  marched  through  Philadelphia 
on  his  way  to  Wilmington,  Del.,  to  meet  the  British.  If,  as  has 
been  asserted,  it  was  the  desire  of  the  commander  in  chief  to  im 
press  the  Tories,  Quakers,  and  other  disaffected  persons,  he 
seems  to  have  succeeded  at  least  in  part,  for  according  to  Allen's 
Diary,  many  of  the  townspeople  now  voluntarily  swore  allegiance 
to  the  new  government.  Nevertheless,  according  to  Sub-lieutenant 
John  Lacey,  who  later  became  a  brigadier  general  in  the  American 
service,  a  formidable  number  of  Tories  still  existed  in  the  City  and 
County  of  Philadelphia,  as  well  as  in  his  own  County  of  Bucks. 
Lacey  maintains  that  a  radical  change  took  place  in  the  political 
sentiments  of  his  neighbors  and  acquaintances  of  Bucks  after  the 
affair  at  Trenton,  that  thereafter  they  began  to  manifest  "a  sullen, 
vindictive  and  malignant  spirit"  which  led  them  to  utter  threats 
and  menaces  when  in  congenial  company,  to  give  secret  information 
to  the  British,  and  to  attempt  dissuading  the  Whigs  from  enlisting 
in  the  American  army  and  militia.  He  finds  it  difficult  to  decide 
which  party  was  the  more  numerous  in  his  county;  and  although 
he  had  been  a  Quaker  himself,  he  charges  that  a  great  part  of  the 
disaffected  made  a  plea  of  conscience  in  refusing  to  bear  arms, 
thus  affording  a  local  preponderance  in  favor  of  the  Revolution. 
Otherwise  they  did  everything  they  could  do,  he  insists,  by  encour- 


16  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.   (1904),  Pt.  I,  270. 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  35 

aging  the  youth  to  join  the  British  and  by  actually  sending  many 
of  them  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.16 

On  August  25th,  the  day  of  the  landing  of  the  British  at  the 
head  of  Chesapeake  Bay  on  their  way  to  Philadelphia,  Congress 
adopted  two  resolutions  obviously  intended  as  precautionary 
measures.  One  of  these  requested  the  executive  authorities  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  to  cause  all  notoriously  disaffected 
persons  within  their  respective  States  to  be  forthwith  ap 
prehended,  disarmed,  and  secured,  until  they  might  be 
released  without  injury  to  the  common  cause.  The  other 
recommended  to  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  of  Pennsyl 
vania  to  have  the  houses  of  all  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia 
searched  for  firearms,  swords,  and  bayonets  which,  if  found,  should 
be  paid  for  at  an  appraised  value  and  turned  over  to  any  of  the 
State  militia  needing  them.  Three  days  after  the  adoption  of  these 
resolutions,  Congress,  finding  symptoms  of  disaffection  among 
the  Quakers  of  Philadelphia  and  fearing  communication  with 
the  enemy  and  other  injurious  acts  by  the  disaffected  ones, 
earnestly  recommended  to  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
to  secure  Joshua  Fisher  and  his  two  sons,  Thomas  and 
Samuel,  Abel  and  John  James,  Israel  and  James  Pember- 
ton,  Henry  Drinker,  Samuel  Pleasants,  and  Thomas  Wharton, 
Sr.  The  Council  at  once  responded  to  these  measures  by  directing 
the  commanding  officer  of  each  regiment  of  the  city  militia  to  ap 
point  searching  parties  for  the  various  wards,  and  by  asking  the 
assistance  of  David  Rittenhouse,  the  treasurer  of  state,  and  three 
military  officers  in  preparing  a  list  of  persons  dangerous  to  the 
Commonwealth,  with  a  view  to  their  arrest  and  the  seizure  of  any 
papers  of  a  political  nature  in  their  possession,  including  the  records 
of  the  Meeting  of  Sufferings  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  for  trans 
mission  to  Congress.  The  list,  which  was  drawn  up  on  August  31, 
contained  the  names  of  thirty-one  individuals,  besides  those  sup 
plied  by  Congress.  James  Allen,  who  knew  many  of  the  desig 
nated  persons  intimately,  characterized  them  as  "principal  Inhabi 
tants  of  Philadelphia,  chiefly  Quakers";  and  Robert  Proud,  the 
Tory  school-master,  who  also  enjoyed  the  friendship  or  acquaint 
ance  of  many  of  the  proscribed,  said  that  they  were  "mostly 
Friends,"  several  of  whom  were  "Persons  of  the  first  Rank,  For- 


"  Scharf  and  Westcott,   Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  343  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Oct.,   1885, 
286;  Apr.,  1902,  101,  104. 


36  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

tune  and  Esteem,  both  in  the  City  and  in  the  Society."  As  he  was 
writing  to  his  brother,  he  added  that  he  had  had  great  reason  to 
fear  for  his  own  safety,  "having  not  only  been  obnoxious  to  the 
Incendiaries  and  Usurpers,  but  also  particularly  pointed  out  and 
threatened  by  them,  more  than  many  others,"  but  that  he  had  es 
caped  molestation  by  living  "in  a  very  private  and  retired  Way, 
even  like  a  Person  dead  amidst  the  Confusions,"  and  communing 
more  with  his  books  than  with  persons.  Among  those  named 
in  the  list  were  the  Reverend  William  Smith,  D.D.,  provost  of 
the  college ;  the  Reverend  Thomas  Coombs,  rector  of  Christ  Church ; 
Samuel  Shoemaker;  William  Drewitt  Smith,  druggist;  Miers  Fish 
er  and  John  Hunt,  lawyers;  Joseph  Fox,  late  barrack-master; 
Thomas  Ashton,  merchant,  and  Thomas  Pike,  dancing  master.17 

The  committee,  which  had  prepared  this  list,  also  named  the 
persons  who  were  to  make  the  arrests.  These  persons  were  in 
structed  to  apprehend  some  of  the  proscribed  at  once,  but  to  spare 
the  others  the  mortification  of  arrest,  if  they  would  promise  to  re 
main  in  their  homes  subject  to  the  order  of  the  Council  and  would 
do  nothing  injurious  to  the  United  States.  A  fourth  of  the  number 
gave  the  required  promise  and  were  released  on  parole;  one  had 
already  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  another  did  so;  the  rest 
were  imprisoned  in  the  Masonic  Lodge,  as  the  jails  were  full,  ex 
cept  two  or  three  who  could  not  be  found.  For  some  unknown  rea 
son,  no  returns  were  made  in  the  cases  of  Joshua  Fisher  and  Pro 
vost  William  Smith.  Before  any  of  the  prisoners  were  sent  into  ex 
ile  in  Virginia,  one  of  their  number  was  released  on  bail,  another 
was  ordered  to  Connecticut,  and  a  third  gave  his  parole  to  return 
to  New  York.  On  September  llth,  twenty-two  finally  set  out  under 
escort  of  the  City  Guard  on  their  way  to  Winchester,  where  most 
of  them  remained  until  April  19,  1778,  when  they  were  released  to 
return  to  their  homes.  However,  two  had  died  during  the  previous 
month,  namely,  Thomas  Gilpin  and  John  Hunt,  and  two  others  had 
made  their  escape.  One  of  these  was  Thomas  Pike,  the  dancing 
master,  who  was  never  heard  of  again,  and  the  other  was  William 
Drewitt  Smith,  who  "rode  out  to  take  the  air,"  as  his  associates 
supposed,  on  December  8,  1777,  but  did  not  return,  preferring  to 
seek  protection  within  the  British  lines  at  Philadelphia.  Two 
others,  namely,  the  Reverend  Thomas  Coombs  and  Phineas  Bond, 


17  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,  264,  267,  279,  283,  284,  286-290,  295,  300,  309  ;  Gilpin,  Exiles 
in  Va.;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.,  1910,  63. 


REPRESSION  IN  SOUTHEASTERN  PENNSYLVANIA  37 

had  been  earlier  set  free  in  order  to  embark  at  a  Virginia  port  for 
the  West  Indies,  the  former  being  bound  for  the  island  of  St. 
Eustatius.18 

Although  the  proprietary  government  had  been  in  abeyance 
ever  since  Franklin  and  the  Provincial  Convention  had  assumed 
control  of  affairs  in  the  summer  of  1776,  the  officials  under  the  for 
mer  dispensation  had  not  been  taken  into  custody;  but  on  July  31, 
1777,  Congress  passed  a  resolution  that  it  was  expedient  that  the 
late  proprietary  and  Crown  office-holders  and  all  other  disaffected 
persons  in  and  near  Philadelphia  be  arrested.  This  resolution,  like 
the  recent  recommendations  emanating  from  the  same  source  for 
the  seizure  of  Loyalists,  was  comprehensive  in  its  scope.  Neverthe 
less,  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  set  to  work  issuing  warrants 
for  the  apprehension  of  Governor  John  Penn,  Benjamin  Chew,  who 
had  been  a  member  of  Penn's  Council  and  chief  justice;  James 
Tilghman,  also  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Council;  Jared  Inger- 
soll,  judge  of  admiralty;  Dr.  George  Drummond,  custom-house 
officer,  and  other  lesser  officials.  Penn  and  Chew  were  paroled  to 
remain  within  six  miles  of  their  residences ;  Ingersoll  was  ordered 
sent  to  Winchester,  Va.,  on  parole ;  Tilghman  was  not  to  cross  the 
Delaware  or  depart  six  miles  from  it,  and  the  others  were  con 
fined  to  their  own  houses  or  put  in  prison.  But  the  Supreme  Execu 
tive  Council  was  anxious  to  be  relieved  of  its  responsibility  for  the 
safe-keeping  of  Chief  Justice  Chew  and  Governor  Penn,  and  there 
fore  requested  Congress  to  remove  the  distinguished  prisoners 
from  the  State.  That  body  complied  promptly,  and  a  military  escort 
conducted  the  deposed  officials  to  Fredericksburg,  Va.  By  October 
1st,  however,  according  to  James  Allen,  they  were  transferred  to 
Union  Iron  Works  in  New  Jersey ;  and  there  Mr.  Allen  visited  them 
early  in  February,  1778,  receiving  on  the  day  after  his  arrival  the 
news  of  the  death  at  Philadelphia  of  his  brother  John,  which  had 
occurred  on  the  second  of  the  month.19 


18  Gilpin,  Exiles  in  Va.;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,   344,  345,  346. 

19  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Oct.,  1885,  288,  292  ;  Jan.  1886,  443  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott, 
Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  343,  345. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 
AUGUST  25,  1777,  TO  JUNE  18,  1778 

Andrew  and  William,  brothers  of  James  Allen,  were  with 
Howe  and  his  army  of  17,000  men  when  they  disembarked,  August 
25  and  26,  1777,  at  the  head  of  the  Elk  River.  So  also  was  Joseph 
Galloway,  who  had  come  as  adviser  to  the  British  commander  in 
chief.  The  region  in  which  the  disembarkation  was  effected  was 
full  of  Loyalists,  and  from  the  first  Howe  was  supplied  with  ample 
intelligence.  The  presence  of  these  troublesome  foes  did  not  escape 
the  attention  of  Washington,  for  on  August  27th,  he  mentioned 
them  in  a  letter  addressed  from  Wilmington  to  the  president  of 
Congress.  Among  the  troops  that  accompanied  Howe  were  two 
Tory  organizations,  the  Queen's  Rangers  and  a  detachment  of  the 
Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers,  both  of  which,  especially  the  former, 
were  to  receive  many  recruits  from  among  the  local  inhabitants 
and  refugees  during  the  expedition.  Indeed,  Tories  began  to  come 
in  from  the  time  of  the  landing,  including  Dr.  John  Watson  of 
New  Castle,  Del.,  and  Hugh  McNeal  from  near  Bedford,  Pa.  The 
latter  has  left  an  affidavit  that  he  made  his  appearance  after  be 
ing  imprisoned  for  aiding  young  men  in  their  flight  to  the  army. 
The  British  commander  encouraged  this  movement  by  issuing  a 
proclamation,  August  31st,  offering  protection  to  such  inhabitants 
as  would  present  themselves  and  swear  allegiance  to  the  Crown 
within  the  next  sixty  days.  Refugees  continued  to  come  in,  although 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing  in  what  numbers.  From  a  few  indi 
vidual  testimonies  we  learn  that  among  those  who  joined  the  royal 
force  on  its  march  northward  were  men  from  Chester  County  and 
from  Philadelphia.  Thus,  Captain  Alexander  McDonald,  a  Phila- 
delphian,  came  in  with  several  Loyalists  at  Wilmington,  and  en 
tered  immediately — according  to  his  own  statement — on  the  task 
of  raising  recruits.  Curtis  Lewis  of  Chester  County  joined  at  Ken- 
nett  Square,  and  probably  then  or  soon  after  Gideon  Vernon  also 

38 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  39 

of  Chester  County,  and  Philip  Marchington,  a  merchant  of  Phila 
delphia.1 

In  the  middle  of  September,  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
received  information  that  the  public  stores  at  York,  Lancaster, 
Carlisle,  and  elsewhere  had  been  destroyed,  that  men  were  to  be 
levied  in  support  of  the  royal  cause,  and  that  James  Rankin  of 
Manchester,  William  Willis  of  Newberry,  John  Ferree  and  Daniel 
Shelly  of  Lancaster  County,  and  others  were  concerned  in  these 
hostile  enterprises.  Already  Shelly  was  in  custody;  and  as  he  of 
fered  to  tell  what  he  knew  against  his  accomplices  he  was  prom 
ised  pardon,  provided  he  would  divulge  enough  to  convict  them. 
Nine  others,  who  were  being  held  on  charges  of  disaffection,  main 
tained  their  innocence,  and  were  granted  their  release  on  the  con 
dition  of  appearing,  if  wanted,  and  abstaining  from  anything  likely 
to  injure  the  American  cause.2 

Congress  and  the  Assembly  stayed  in  Philadelphia  until  Sep 
tember  18th,  when  both  bodies  adjourned  to  meet  in  Lancaster. 
The  Supreme  Executive  Council  did  not  leave  until  the  23d  of  the 
same  month.  For  several  weeks,  according  to  Robert  Proud,  the 
revolutionary  party  had  been  busy  stripping  the  city  of  its  church 
bells,  supply  of  lead,  and  much  else  that  might  be  useful  to  the  en 
emy  or  to  the  Continental  forces.  About  4,000  head  of  cattle  were 
collected  from  the  meadows  and  from  Hog  Island  by  the  commit 
tee  entrusted  with  that  duty  and  driven  away,  after  which  the 
meadow  banks  were  cut  and  the  pastures  inundated.  Blankets, 
clothing,  and  shoes  were  exacted  from  the  citizens  in  spite  of  Tory 
protests;  magazines  and  supplies  were  removed,  and  the  money 
and  papers  of  the  loan  office  and  the  records  of  the  State  were  car 
ried  to  Easton.3 

Meantime,  the  patriots  and  their  families  had  followed  the 
Council  and  the  legislative  bodies  into  retirement,  leaving  the 
Quakers  and  Loyalists  behind.  But  not  all  of  the  patriots  or  Whigs 
had  departed,  as  we  learn  from  several  sources.  On  September 
25th,  one  day  before  Lord  Cornwallis  entered  Philadelphia  at  the 
head  of  1,500  British  and  Hessian  Grenadiers,  Mrs.  Henry  Drinker 


1  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  347;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.  (1904). 
Pt.  I,  253,  295,  494,  611;  Pt.  II,  900,  1162;  Washington  Papers,  I,  178;  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy. 
Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  I,  132. 

*  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,   307,   308. 

8  Scharf   and   Westcott,    Hist,    of   Phila^    I,    348,    349,    350 ;    Pa.   Mag.   of   Hist,    and   Biog., 
Jan.,   1910,  72. 


40  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

wrote  in  her  Journal :  "Most  of  our  warm  people  have  gone  off" ; 
and  Christopher  Marshall  tells  us  on  what  he  considered  reliable 
authority  that  on  the  same  day  four  or  five  hundred  Tories  pa 
raded  out  to  Germantown  (where  the  main  army  under  General 
Howe  first  encamped)  and,  returning,  ' 'triumphed  through  the 
streets  all  night,"  sending  to  prison  such  persons  as  they  regarded 
to  be  friends  of  the  rebellious  States,  including  "the  parson,  Jacob 
Duche."  The  number  imprisoned  amounted  to  "some  hundreds," 
Mrs.  Drinker  records ;  although  there  were  other  Whigs  remaining 
in  the  city  who  were  not  molested,  probably  through  the  friendship 
of  Galloway  and  the  Aliens.  These  refugees  from  Philadelphia, 
together  with  other  citizens  of  the  town,  arrived  with  Cornwallis 
"to  the  great  relief  of  the  inhabitants"  who,  Robert  Morton's  Diary 
avers,  had  "too  long  suffered  the  yoke  of  arbitrary  power,"  and 
who  testified  their  approbation  of  the  coming  of  the  troops  "by 
loudest  acclamations  of  joy."  Whatever  the  joy  of  some  may  have 
been,  there  were  numerous  others  whose  feelings  impelled  them 
to  withdraw  from  the  city  even  after  its  occupation.  On  October 
1,  James  Allen  observed  that  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  Philadel 
phia  were  coming  up  to  settle  at  Allentown  and  that  the  road  from 
Easton  to  Reading  was  then  "the  most  travelled  in  America."  4 

That  Howe  profited  by  the  assistance  of  local  Tories  in  the 
course  of  his  advance  from  the  head  of  the  Elk  to  Germantown 
can  scarcely  be  doubted.  Thus,  in  the  early  hours  of  September  21, 
when  he  was  ready  to  cross  the  Schuylkill  while  General  Anthony 
Wayne  with  1,500  men  and  four  guns  was  bivouacking  in  his  rear, 
with  a  view  to  detaining  him  until  help  should  arrive,  it  was  the 
intelligence  brought  in  by  Loyalists  that  enabled  the  British  com 
mander  in  chief  to  surprise  and  cut  off  Wayne's  men  and  so  cross 
over  without  interruption.  With  the  encamping  of  the  invading 
host  at  Germantown  and  Philadelphia  a  few  days  later,  both  places 
became  centers  of  attraction  for  adherents  of  the  Crown  from  the 
surrounding  region,  and  also  from  remoter  parts  of  the  country. 
On  September  28th  Howe  issued  a  proclamation  from  his  head 
quarters  at  Germantown,  promising  protection  and  security  to  all 
coming  in  and  conducting  themselves  in  accordance  with  his  proc 
lamation  of  a  month  earlier.  Then,  on  October  8th,  he  announced 


*  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Oct.,  1889,  298  ;  Oct.,  1885,  293,  294  ;  Duane,  ed.,  Extracts 
from  the  Diary  of  Christopher  Marshall,  132  ;  Sargent,  ed.,  Loyal  Verses  of  Joseph  Stansbury 
and  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell,  140  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  360. 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  41 

free  pardon  to  all  deserters  who  would  voluntarily  surrender  before 
December  1st;  and  at  the  same  time  he  published  another  proclama 
tion  in  which  he  predicted  the  early  suppression  of  the  unnatural 
rebellion,  and  offered  the  inhabitants  an  opportunity  to  "cooperate 
in  relieving  themselves  from  the  miseries  attendant  on  tyranny  and 
anarchy,  and  in  restoring  peace  and  good  order  with  just  and  law 
ful  authority."  A  bounty  of  fifty  acres  of  vacant  land  for  each 
private  and  of  two  hundred  acres  for  each  non-commissioned  of 
ficer  was  promised  to  those  who  would  enlist  in  the  Provincial 
corps  for  two  years  or  during  the  war.  The  Queen's  Rangers  were 
with  the  main  army  at  Germantown,  occupying  the  extreme  right 
of  the  encampment,  and  probably  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers 
were  near  by;  but  on  October  12th  and  14th,  respectively,  Howe 
had  the  satisfaction  of  approving  lists  of  officers  for  two  additional 
Tory  regiments,  namely,  the  first  battalion  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Loyalists  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Volunteers.  Alfred  Clifton  was 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  latter  and  William  Allen  of  the  for 
mer.  Meantime,  Tories  were  arriving  at  Germantown,  including 
John  Parrock  and  Alexander  Kidd  from  Philadelphia,  James  Oram 
from  the  country  near  by,  and  Walter  Willet  from  Bucks  County. 
On  October  19th  Howe  and  his  command  transferred  their  camp 
to  the  Quaker  City,  and  five  days  thereafter  he  designated  the 
staff  for  the  first  battalion  of  the  Maryland  Loyalists  at  the  instance 
of  James  Chalmers,  its  lieutenant  colonel,  who  had  previously  been 
a  resident  of  Philadelphia.  On  November  7th  he  did  the  same  for 
the  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons,  which  was  to  consist  of  two 
companies  with  Richard  Hovenden  and  Jacob  James  as  captains. 
By  November  26th,  the  Pennsylvania  Loyalists  numbered  145  men 
and  the  Maryland  Loyalists  133.  The  first  muster  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Volunteers  was  taken  on  December  14th,  and  showed  62 
men,  but  this  number  was  nearly  trebled  during  the  next  ten  days 
(i.e.,  it  reached  176  men  on  December  24th) .  Hovenden  raised  his 
troop  of  Dragoons  in  Philadelphia  during  November  and  Decem 
ber  ;  while  James  recruited  his  troop  in  Chester  County  in  the  fol 
lowing  January,  the  maximum  number  of  the  combined  troops 
amounting  to  109  men.  The  Bucks  County  Light  Dragoons  were 
recruited  by  Captain  Thomas  Sandford  in  Bucks  County  in  the  fall 
of  1777,  and  were  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Watson 
through  the  following  winter  and  spring,  while  Sandford  was  a 
prisoner  with  the  Americans.  Its  maximum  enrollment  was  55 


42  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

men.  In  May,  1778,  these  three  troops  were  organized  into  a  squad 
ron  under  Watson's  command.  During  the  time  that  the  Bucks 
County  corps  was  forming,  Lieutenant  Colonel  John  Van  Dyke  of 
Somerset  County,  N.  J.,  was  raising  the  West  Jersey  Volunteers 
in  the  southern  counties  of  that  Province.  In  January,  1778,  he 
had  186  infantrymen,  and  during  the  course  of  the  next  four  months 
he  added  157  cavalrymen.  Colonel  Lord  Rawdon,  who  had  come  to 
Philadelphia  with  the  British,  was  enlisting  the  Volunteers  of  Ire 
land  in  the  early  part  of  May,  and  probably  had  300  recruits  before 
the  city  was  evacuated.  We  should  not  overlook  the  accessions  to 
the  New  Jersey  Volunteers,  Queen's  Rangers,  and  the  Royal  Guides 
and  Pioneers  during  this  period  of  Tory  enlistments:  at  least  a 
few  men  joined  the  Guides  and  Pioneers,  and  about  225,  if  not 
more,  were  enrolled  in  the  Rangers,  including  Captain  John  Ferdi 
nand  Dalziel  Smyth  and  Lieutenant  James  Murray,  with  their  61 
recruits.  Smyth's  commission  as  "an  additional  captain  of  the 
Rangers"  was  dated  September  6,  1777.  Many  of  the  men  who 
entered  the  ranks  of  this  corps  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speak 
ing  were  refugees  from  Virginia  and  other  Southern  Colonies. 
It  will  be  recalled  that  a  number  of  recruits  from  Philadelphia 
joined  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers  at  Staten  Island  about  the  time 
the  test  was  being  applied  in  1777.  It  was  less  than  three  months 
later,  or  when  Cornwallis  and  his  division  entered  Philadelphia, 
that  the  first  and  second  battalions  of  this  corps  arrived  there. 
Many  volunteers  at  once  enrolled  themselves  in  the  companies  of 
Captains  Thomas  Golden  and  Norman  McLeod;  while  two  new 
companies  were  organized  during  November  and  December,  1777, 
one  by  Captain  Donald  Campbell  and  the  other,  which  consisted 
of  Cumberland  men,  by  Captain  Richard  Cayford. 

If  now  we  attempt  to  figure  the  number  of  enlistments  gained 
by  the  British  from  the  invaded  region,  we  get  a  total  of  between 
1,700  and  1,800  men,  a  number  that  would  be  reduced  to  about 
1,400,  if  we  exclude  the  West  Jersey  Volunteers,  who  were  not  re 
cruited  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  Doubtless,  this  number  should 
be  still  further  reduced  on  account  of  accessions  gained  by  detach 
ments  during  raids  into  New  Jersey.  These  figures  do  not  agree 
with  those  of  Joseph  Galloway,  who  confines  his  to  the  enlistments 
secured  in  Philadelphia.  In  his  testimony  before  Parliament,  Gal 
loway  stated  that  there  were  within  the  lines  at  Philadelphia,  when 
Howe  occupied  the  city,  4,481  males  capable  of  bearing  arms,  of 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  43 

whom  a  fourth  were  Quakers.  His  fourth  is  a  generous  one,  how 
ever,  leaving  a  remainder  of  3,000.  Of  these,  he  says,  Howe  got 
only  974  men  in  all,  who  were  chiefly  deserters  on  account  of  the 
unpopularity  of  the  Loyalists  authorized  to  recruit.  Galloway 
added  that  during  Howe's  occupation  2,300  deserters  came  in  from 
the  Continental  army  and  were  registered  and  qualified,  besides 
700  or  800  more,  who  never  reported.  Galloway's  characterization 
of  the  men  whom  Howe  commissioned  to  raise  Provincial  com 
panies  and  battalions  was  certainly  unjust:  they  were  influential, 
but  the  British  commander  in  chief  lacked  the  power  of  infusing 
his  subordinates  with  the  proper  military  spirit.  General  Howe 
achieved  great  personal  popularity  among  his  men,  but  he  achieved 
little  else.  Galloway  was  himself  the  chosen  adviser  of  Howe,  and 
as  the  virtual  governor  of  Philadelphia  during  the  occupation  was 
active  and  serviceable  in  many  ways;  and  yet  he,  like  his  chief, 
brought  nothing  of  consequence  to  pass,  not  even  good  order  in 
the  city.5 

After  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  Mr.  Galloway's 
first  duties  appears  to  have  been  to  number  all  the  inhabitants,  in 
order  to  distinguish  the  loyal  from  the  disaffected.  In  connection 
with  the  quartering  of  troops,  he  was  able  to  show  consideration 
for  his  old  friends,  even  if  he  was  not  disposed  to  *  'lessen  the  dis 
tress  of  old  enemies."  He  secured  horses  for  the  army,  procured 
intelligence  of  the  movements  of  the  enemy  through  the  agency  of 
about  eighty  spies,  rendered  the  capture  of  Mud  Island  Fort  more 
speedy  by  the  erection  of  some  batteries,  compiled  a  chart  of  all  the 
roads  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  and  was  assigned  to  adminis 
ter  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  inhabitants  under  Howe's  proclama 
tion.  As  this  last  named  task  was  beyond  his  time  and  strength, 
Mr.  Galloway  had  Enoch  Story  commissioned  to  perform  it,  and 
then  had  to  ask  for  a  day  or  two's  extension  of  time  beyond  the  two 
months  originally  announced,  on  account  of  the  numbers  crowding 
in  on  Mr.  Story  late  in  October.  On  December  4th,  Mr.  Galloway 


5  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  349,  350,  352,  354,  360  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and 
Biog.,  Oct.,  1885,  291;  Oct.,  1889,  298;  Jan.,  1886,  429;  Jan.,  1910,  1;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Ar 
chives,  Out.  (1904),  Pt.  I,  669,  684;  II,  835,  741;  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  I, 
136,  138,  139,  143,  150 ;  Rev.  W.  O.  Raymond's  Ms.  Notes  from  the  Muster  Rolls  of  Col.  Ed 
ward  Winslow;  Stryker,  N.  J.  (Loyalist)  Vols.  in  the  Rev.  War  (pamphlet),  12;  Sabine, 
Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  378  ;  Siebert,  "Refugee  Loyalists  of  Conn."  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soc. 
of  Can.,  Ser.  Ill,  Vol.  X  (1916),  82,  83;  Scott,  John  Graves  Simcoe,  24;  Read,  Life  and  Times 
of  Governor  Simcoe,  27  ;  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  I,  234 ;  III,  170 ; 
IV,  474. 


44  THE  LOYALISTS  OP  PENNSYLVANIA 

was  appointed  superintendent  general  of  the  police  in  the  city  and 
its  environs  and  superintendent  of  imports  and  exports.  He  thus 
became  the  civil  governor  of  Philadelphia,  being  vested  with  the 
administration  of  municipal  affairs  under  the  direction  of  General 
Howe.  Mr.  Story  and  Andrew  Smith  served  as  deputy  officials  of 
the  port  and  Samuel  Shoemaker,  John  Potts,  and  Daniel  Coxe  as 
magistrates  of  the  police.  Mr.  Coxe  was  a  noted  refugee  from  New 
Jersey  and  had  served  in  the  King's  Council  of  that  Colony.  Messrs. 
Potts  and  Shoemaker  were  well-known  Philadelphians  and  former 
office-holders.  Howe  also  appointed  George  Roberts,  James  Reyn 
olds,  James  Sparks,  and  Joseph  Stansbury  for  the  city,  together 
with  John  Hart  for  Southwark,  and  Francis  Jeyes  for  the  North 
ern  Liberties,  to  be  commissioners  for  selecting  and  supervising 
the  night-watch,  which  numbered  one  hundred  men  in  the  city  and 
ten  each  in  the  Northern  Liberties  and  Southwark.  Mr.  Stans 
bury  was  a  writer  of  Tory  songs  and  verses  and  was  later  named 
as  manager  of  a  lottery  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  The  preservation 
of  peace  and  order  was  a  difficult  task,  which  subjected  Mr.  Gal 
loway  and  the  magistrates  of  the  police  to  "extraordinary  trouble 
and  attention  to  business."  These  officials  were  therefore  granted 
£25  sterling  every  quarter,  in  addition  to  their  respective  salaries. 
As  Howe  summarized  the  amounts  paid  to  Mr.  Galloway,  they  com 
prised  an  initial  salary  of  £200  a  year,  £300  a  year  more  as  police 
magistrate,  with  6s  per  diem  for  his  clerk,  and  20s  per  diem  as  su 
perintendent  of  the  port,  or  a  total  of  £770  a  year.  Other  local 
Loyalists  rendered  various  other  services.  Thus,  for  example, 
George  Harding  of  Philadelphia  was  employed  in  disarming  those 
who  were  disaffected  to  the  Crown  and  in  finding  proper  locations 
for  the  troops.  He  was  also  authorized,  along  with  twenty  other 
men,  to  apprehend  spies  in  the  Continental  service.  Abraham 
Carlisle,  another  resident,  was  given  oversight  of  the  entrances 
to  the  city,  with  the  power  to  issue  passports.  John  Parrock,  also 
of  Philadelphia,  supplied  lumber  from  his  wharves  for  the  army 
quarters  and  for  the  navy.  William  Caldwell  of  Union  Township 
was  one  of  Galloway's  secret  service  men,  as  well  as  a  guide  for 
several  detachments  of  the  troops.  Joseph  Murell  rendered  similar 
services.  Gideon  Vernon  of  Chester  County  carried  dispatches  for 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  45 

General  Howe  and  made  observations  among  the  enemy's  forces, 
and  Henry  Hugh  Ferguson  was  commissary  of  prisoners.6 

It  fell  to  Mr.  Galloway,  among  his  numerous  duties,  to  regulate 
the  markets,  including  the  terms  of  buying  and  selling.  Permits 
were  required  for  dealers  selling  more  than  a  bushel  of  salt  or  a 
hogshead  of  molasses  to  individual  buyers,  and  this  was  also  true 
in  the  case  of  those  handling  drugs  in  quantity.  The  purchaser  of 
rum  and  spirits  must  buy  from  the  importer  only,  but  not  more 
than  a  hogshead  nor  less  than  ten  gallons  at  a  time.  Tavern  licenses 
were  also  issued  by  Galloway,  who  granted  permits  to  many  refu 
gee  Loyalists  to  reopen  deserted  inns.  As  a  swarm  of  strangers  and 
fugitive  Philadelphians  arrived  with  the  new  regime,  not  a  few 
seized  the  earliest  opportunity  of  opening  places  for  trade,  includ 
ing  many  shops  and  stores  formerly  kept  by  Whigs  who  were  now 
absent.  Christopher  Marshall  at  Lancaster  heard  that  there  were 
about  120  new  stores  in  Philadelphia,  one  kept  by  an  Englishmen, 
another  by  an  Irishman,  "the  remainder  being  118  Scotchmen  or 
Tories  from  Virginia."  Joseph  Stansbury  became  a  dealer  in  china, 
William  Drewitt  Smith  reopened  his  drug  store  after  his  return 
from  Winchester,  "James  McDowell  took  Gilbert  Barclay's  store 
on  Second  Street,  Bird's  London  Store  supplanted  Mrs.  Devine's, 
George  Leyburn  ensconced  himself  in  Francis  Tilghman's  store, 
William  Robb  sold  merchandise  where  William  Redwood  had  served 
his  customers,  Ninian  Mangies  took  Thomas  Gilpin's  place,  John 
Brander,  Isaac  Cox's,  [and]  Thomas  Blane  succeeded  to  Mease  and 
Caldwell."  These  and  other  tradesmen  of  the  city  preferred  solid 
coin  in  place  of  paper  money  under  the  new  regulations,  and  so  fur 
nished  Joseph  Stansbury  with  a  topic  for  one  of  his  rhymed  sat 
ires,  in  which  he  represented  that  the  shop-keepers  rejected  the 
notes  because  they  were  issued  against  lands  and  mortgages  held 
by  the  rebels,  but  that  nevertheless  many  of  the  friends  of  govern 
ment  in  town — 

"Sold  each  half -joe  for  twelve  pounds  Congress  trash, 

Which  purchased  six  pounds  of  this  legal  cash; 

Whereby  they  have,  if  you  will  bar  the  bubble, 

Instead  of  losing,  made  their  money  double." 


8  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Dec.,  1902,  435,  436 ;  Jan.,  1886,  438 ;  Scharf  and  West- 
cott,  Hist,  of  PhUa.,  I,  360;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.  (1904),  Pt.  I,  109,  112,  129,  160. 
165,  222,  260,  269,  296,  498,  517,  564,  669,  684  ;  II,  741,  827,  835  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev., 
I,  296,  339,  421 ;  II,  112,  199,  301,  325  ;  Rep.  on  Am.  Mas.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  I,  146, 

160,  201,  218,  277,  364. 


46  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Among  these  friends  of  government  were  several  publishers  of 
Tory  newspapers.  Until  Howe's  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  Benja 
min  Towne's  Pennsylvania  Evening  Post  had  been  Whig  in  poli 
tics.  Then,  it  abruptly  became  Tory,  only  to  change  back  again 
with  the  return  of  the  Americans.  James  Humphreys  revived  the 
Pennsylvania  Ledger  during  the  British  and  Loyalist  supremacy, 
using  the  royal  arms  for  the  heading  of  his  paper;  and  the  Penn 
sylvania  Gazette  also  sought  the  patronage  of  the  military  and  ref 
ugee  populace  during  the  same  period.  These  last  two  publications 
suspended  about  May  23,  1778.7 

The  Tories  in  Philadelphia  were  panic-stricken  by  the  battle 
of  Germantown,  which  was  fought  October  5,  1777;  and  some  of 
them  moved  out  of  the  city,  though  probably  not  for  long.  As  the 
wounded  were  brought  into  Philadelphia  for  care  in  numerous  im 
provised  hospitals,  the  resident  Quakers  could  not  avoid  seeing 
more  or  less  of  the  cruelties  of  actual  warfare ;  and  two  days  after 
the  battle  they  sent  a  deputation  to  Howe  and  thence  to  Washing 
ton  with  testimonies  on  the  ungodliness  of  war.  In  their  communi 
cation  to  the  latter,  they  made  use  of  the  opportunity  to  assert  the 
innocence  of  themselves  and  of  their  Society  of  imputations  cast 
upon  them ;  to  explain  that  the  aim  of  their  body  was  to  seek  only 
for  peace  and  righteousness  in  the  world,  with  equal  love  to  all 
men,  and  to  intimate  their  desire  for  Washington's  aid  in  behalf 
of  their  brethren  still  in  exile  at  Winchester,  Va.  The  raising  of 
this  last  question  inclined  the  American  commander  in  chief  to 
send  his  callers  to  Lancaster  to  lay  their  request  respecting  the  ex 
iles  before  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  and  Congress;  but  as 
they  timidly  withdrew  their  suggestion,  he  relieved  their  minds  by 
inviting  them  to  dinner  and  ordering  them,  as  one  of  his  officers 
expressed  it,  "only  to  do  pennance  a  few  days  at  Pott's-grove." 

From  the  time  the  British  first  entered  Philadelphia,  Septem 
ber  26,  1777,  until  they  left  it,  June  17,  1778,  or  during  a  period  of 
eight  and  a  half  months,  fugitives  were  coming  in  singly  and  in 
groups,  as  opportunity  offered,  from  the  neighboring  country,  in 
cluding  all  the  counties  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  from  Northamp 
ton  and  Bucks  on  the  north  to  Lancaster  and  York  on  the  west  of 
the  metropolis.  They  came  in  also  in  considerable  numbers  from 


7  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  359,   366,  367,  383  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am. 
Rev.,  II,  360;  I,  654,  556. 

8  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  359. 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  47 

Virginia,  Maryland,  and  especially  from  New  Jersey.  James  Allen, 
who  sent  his  family  into  the  city  in  January,  1778,  and  followed 
with  his  sister,  Mrs.  John  Penn,  on  February  13,  noted  in  his 
Diary  after  his  arrival  that  the  town  was  filled  with  refugees  from 
the  country,  and  that  the  Tories  of  many  localities  in  Bucks  County 
and  in  New  Jersey  had  risen  against  severe  persecution  and 
brought  in  their  oppressors  as  prisoners.  In  neighborhoods  where 
the  number  of  Loyalists  was  too  small  to  accomplish  such  feats  of 
valor,  the  approach  of  a  detachment  of  British  troops  or  of  a  res 
cue  party  from  the  seat  of  the  army  had  to  be  awaited.  An  appeal 
for  succor  from  a  group  of  Jerseymen  was  responded  to  by  twenty 
West  Jersey  refugees,  who  crossed  to  the  east  side  of  the  Delaware 
from  Philadelphia,  had  a  skirmish  with  a  band  of  watchful  Ameri 
cans  at  the  mouth  of  Mantua  Creek,  and  returned  with  their  res 
cued  friends,  February  3d.  At  the  end  of  this  month,  it  was  re 
ported  in  the  Pennsylvania  Evening  Post  that  large  numbers  of 
Jerseymen  had  joined  a  detachment  of  the  army  since  its  arrival  in 
their  vicinity.  The  Pennsylvania  Ledger  of  March  18th  declared 
that  there  was  not  a  day  on  which  "great  numbers"  of  Loyalists 
were  not  flocking  to  the  city,  being  "driven  by  the  most  obdurate 
and  merciless  tyranny  from  all  that  is  dear  and  valuable  in  life."  An 
item  of  May  llth  in  Allen's  Diary  stated  that  the  "persecutions  in 
the  country  were  very  great,  that  those  who  refused  to  subscribe 
to  the  test  in  the  various  Provinces  were  treated  as  enemies  and 
suffered  confiscation  of  their  estates,  and  that  Philadelphia  was 
swarming  with  refugees."9 

While,  as  we  have  already  seen,  a  few  of  these  unfortunate 
people  had  sufficient  resources  still  at  command  to  enable  them  to 
engage  in  business,  and  others  received  official  positions  in  the  city 
to  which  salaries  were  attached,  the  great  majority  of  the  refugees 
must  have  been  under  the  necessity  of  depending  on  the  army  or  the 
city  authorities  for  their  housing  and  support.  It  will  be  shown 
farther  on  that  those  Loyalists  who  were  embodied  in  regiments 
were  employed  in  patrolling  the  country  roads  so  as  to  enable 
farmers  and  gardeners  to  reach  the  city  market  with  their  produce, 
and  that  they  also  secured  quantities  of  booty  through  foraging 
and  plundering  expeditions;  but  in  view  of  the  pressing  needs  of 
the  raiders  themselves  and  of  the  regular  troops,  it  may  be  doubted 


9  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.,   1886,  431,   436  ;  N.  J.  Archives,  2d  Ser.,   II,   35,  65, 
81,  126,  127. 


48  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

whether  or  not  any  of  these  extra  supplies  ever  reached  those  ref 
ugees  who  were  too  impoverished  to  supply  their  own  wants 
through  the  ordinary  channels  of  trade.  According  to  the  census 
that  Howe  had  taken  shortly  after  his  entry  into  Philadelphia,  the 
population  amounted  to  a  little  more  than  23,700,  of  which  the  fe 
males  numbered  13,403,  not  to  mention  the  children,  of  whom 
there  were  certainly  many,  although  we  get  no  figures  concerning 
them.  We  can  thus  see  that  the  proportion  of  dependents  was 
extremely  large,  and  we  know  that  it  was  being  constantly  in 
creased  by  the  arrival  of  distressed  Loyalists.  It  is  easy  to  under 
stand,  therefore,  why  in  the  winter  of  1777-78,  Howe  sanctioned 
the  collection  of  contributions  for  the  support  of  the  almshouse, 
thirty-two  collectors  being  appointed  for  the  purpose;  why  as 
spring  approached  the  commander  in  chief  exhorted  the  Loyalists 
in  one  of  his  proclamations  "to  exert  themselves  in  raising  vege 
tables"  and  other  things  for  the  use  of  the  soldiers  and  inhabitants, 
and  why  in  April  he  authorized  a  lottery,  which  was  placed  under 
the  management  of  Stephen  Shewell,  James  Craig,  Reynold  Keene, 
Joseph  Stansbury,  and  twelve  others.  This  lottery  produced 
£1,012  10s  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  in  the  city.10  But  the  best 
efforts  of  the  Loyalists  to  supply  garden  and  farm  produce  for 
the  army  and  the  multitude  of  refugees  within  the  lines 
were  quite  inadequate  to  relieve  a  situation  which  James 
Allen,  writing  on  June  8,  vividly  described  in  the  following  words : 
"For  7  months  Gen  Washington  with  an  army  not  exceeding  7  or 
8000  men  has  lain  at  Valley  Forge  20  miles  from  here,  unmolested ; 
while  Sr  W.  Howe 'with  more  than  double  his  number  &  the  best 
troops  in  the  world,  has  been  shut  up  in  Philada,  where  the  markets 
are  extravagantly  high,  &  parties  of  the  enemy  all  round  the 
city  within  a  mile  or  two  robbing  the  market  people.  Consequently 
the  distress  of  the  citizens  and  particularly  the  Refugees  has  been 
very  great." 

During  the  winter  and  spring  of  1777  and  1778,  the  Phila 
delphia  Light  Dragoons  had  been  cooperating  with  the  Queen's 
Rangers  in  securing  the  country  and  facilitating  the  inhabitants  in 
bringing  their  produce  into  Philadelphia.  The  Rangers,  with  Re 
doubt  No.  1  at  Kensington  as  their  headquarters,  patrolled  the 
roads  above,  particularly  the  Frankford  road,  to  enable  the  Bucks 
County  farmers  to  drive  into  town  with  the  products  of  their  farms 


10  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,   367,   373. 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  49 

and  dairies.  The  market  people,  however,  were  prevented  by  the 
Americans  from  coming  down  below  Frankford,  and  their  light 
horse  made  frequent  sallies  on  the  Rangers'  quarters  at  Kensing 
ton.  In  December  or  January  the  withdrawal  by  Brigadier  Gen 
eral  Lacey  of  some  of  his  Pennsylvania  militia  from  the  posts  they 
had  been  occupying  in  the  Delaware-Schuylkill  peninsula  enabled 
the  patrolling  Tory  regiments  to  forage  and  ravage  at  will.  On 
February  14th,  Hovenden's  troop  of  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons 
went  up  the  Bristol  road,  and  Captain  Evan  Thomas  with  his  Bucks 
County  Volunteers  took  the  Bustleton  road.  On  their  return  they 
brought  back  most  of  the  officials  of  Bucks  County.  During  the 
same  month  they  made  other  forays  into  the  County  of  Bucks,  as  the 
result  of  which  they  captured  a  number  of  Continental  soldiers,  a 
quantity  of  cloth  greatly  needed  by  Washington's  army  at  Valley 
Forge,  and  a  drove  of  130  cattle.  About  a  month  later  the  Queen's 
Rangers,  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers,  and  other  troops  to  the  num 
ber  of  about  1,500  men  engaged  in  foraging  expeditions  into  New 
Jersey  and  Cumberland  County,  Pa.  When,  at  length,  the  Pennsyl 
vania  militia  under  Brigadier  General  Lacey  was  strengthened,  the 
farmers  of  Bucks  County  found  it  more  difficult  to  reach  the  Phila 
delphia  market.  Many  of  them  were  captured,  and  some  were  con 
demned  by  court-martial  to  be  hanged.  Later,  those  caught  con 
veying  produce  to  the  British  were  deprived  of  their  teams  and 
laden  wagons,  and  were  in  many  cases  subjected  to  a  flogging. 
Lacey's  operations  were  now  so  successful  in  cutting  off  supplies 
from  the  city  that  on  May  1,  1778,  the  Queen's  Rangers,  the  Phila 
delphia  Light  Dragoons,  and  other  regiments  were  dispatched  to 
destroy  the  energetic  officer  and  his  command.  Taken  by  surprise, 
twenty-six  of  the  Americans  were  killed,  and  some  of  the  prisoners 
and  wounded  were  put  to  death  in  brutal  ways  by  their  Tory  cap 
tors.11 

The  civil  authorities,  as  well  as  the  military,  sought  to  sup 
press  the  intercourse  between  Philadelphia  and  the  outside  world 
during  the  period  of  the  British  occupation  of  the  city.  On  October 
12,  1777,  a  new  "supplement"  to  the  test  act  of  four  months  earlier 
was  passed,  because  the  latter  had  not  been  found  satisfactory  in 
actual  experience.  The  supplement  was  framed  to  stop  the  passing 
from  county  to  county  of  male  white  non- jurors  and  Loyalists,  and 


a  Pa.  Mag.   of  Hist,  and  Biog.,   Jan.,   1886,   438;   Scharf  and  Westcott,   Hist,  of  Phila.,   I, 
360,  361,  365,  373,  374,  375. 


50  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

especially  of  those  coming  out  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  now  in 
the  possession  of  the  British.  The  age  limit  of  those  who  were 
ordered  to  subscribe  to  the  oath  or  affirmation  was  now  reduced 
from  eighteen  to  sixteen  years,  and  justices  of  the  peace  were  em 
powered  not  only  to  exact  the  oath,  but  also  to  require  such  further 
security  as  they  might  think  necessary  in  individual  cases.  Im 
prisonment  without  bail  was  the  alternative,  the  end  of  the  sen 
tence  depending  on  the  willingness  of  the  suspect  to  subscribe  and 
furnish  the  extra  security.  The  final  section  of  the  law  made  it  pos 
sible  for  one  or  more  sworn  accusers  to  have  persons  who  avoided 
traveling  about  brought  before  a  justice  on  suspicion  of  unfriendli 
ness  to  the  independence  of  the  United  States,  in  order  that  the 
test  might  be  applied  to  him.  This  measure  was  to  go  into  opera 
tion  three  days  after  its  enactment.  The  new  Council  of  Safety 
(October  21  to  December  6,  1777)  and  after  it  the  Supreme  Execu 
tive  Council  in  their  sessions  at  Lancaster  tried  and  sentenced  many 
offenders  on  the  charge  of  supplying  the  royal  troops  with  provi 
sions,  or  of  prosecuting  an  illicit  trade  with  them.  The  usual  pen 
alty  inflicted  was  one  month's  imprisonment  at  hard  labor,  although 
in  certain  instances  the  term  of  incarceration  was  lengthened  to 
that  of  the  war,  and  occasionally  fifty  or  one  hundred  lashes  were 
added  for  some  special  reason,  such  as  the  passing  of  counterfeit 
Continental  currency  by  the  culprit.  As  some  of  those  carrying 
on  the  forbidden  trade  lived  on  the  east  side  of  the  Delaware  River, 
the  civil  authorities  of  New  Jersey  also  employed  repressive  meas 
ures.  The  General  Assembly  of  that  State  passed  a  bill  which  was 
intended  to  prevent  all  communication  between  the  parties  con 
cerned;  but  since  the  act  was  not  well  enforced,  the  magistrates  of 
Burlington  County,  N.  J.,  announced  their  determination  on  Febru 
ary  16,  1778,  to  execute  it  in  the  most  rigorous  manner.  On  the 
same  date,  the  governor  of  New  Jersey,  William  Livingston,  recom 
mended  the  enactment  of  a  bill  authorizing  the  militia,  or  any 
other  persons,  to  seize  all  effects  suspected  of  being  carried  to  or 
from  the  enemy,  the  seized  goods  to  be  appropriated  to  those  tak 
ing  them,  in  case  the  persons  thus  dispossessed  should  be  found 
guilty  by  legal  process.12 

These  efforts  to  terminate  the  intercourse  between  Philadel 
phia  and  the  outside  world  served  in  considerable  measure  to  in 
crease  the  distress  already  existing  among  the  refugees 


13  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  159  ;  N.  J.  Archives,  2d.  Ser.,  II,  56,  57,  87. 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  61 

and  inhabitants  of  the  city,  already  greatly  aggravated,  it 
may  be  added,  by  the  exorbitant  prices  of  provisions  and  merchan 
dise  prevailing  there.  Notwithstanding  these  unfortunate  condi 
tions,  however,  there  was  no  dearth  of  festivities  among  the  men 
of  the  camps  and  the  social  set  in  the  metropolis  during  the  Tory 
supremacy.  When  off  duty  the  soldiers  gave  themselves  up  to 
amusements.  The  officers  formed  themselves  into  dining  clubs, 
among  which  was  the  "Loyal  Association  Club";  they  also  held 
cricket  matches,  and  patronized  a  cock-pit  where  mains  were 
fought  for  a  hundred  guineas.  Weekly  balls  from  the  end  of  Jan 
uary  to  that  of  April  afforded  ample  opportunity  for  the  young 
ladies  of  the  Tory  set  to  establish  social  relations  with  the  mili 
tary  gentlemen  in  town.  The  old  South  Street  Theatre  witnessed 
a  series  of  plays,  in  some  of  which  the  officers  took  part.  Howe 
paid  the  price  of  all  this  unwarranted  gaiety,  as  well  as  of  his 
supineness  in  martial  affairs,  by  being  supplanted  in  his 
command.  On  May  7,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  landed  at  Billingsport, 
and  the  next  day  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia.  Before  Howe 
embarked  for  England,  he  was  complimented  by  a  regatta 
on  the  Delaware  and  a  pageant  of  knights,  squires,  and 
ladies  on  the  beautiful  grounds  of  the  Wharton  mansion 
at  Walnut  Grove.  This  combined  celebration,  which  was 
planned  and  chiefly  managed  by  Major  John  Andre,  and  was  widely 
heralded  as  the  Meschianza,  occurred,  May  18th,  and  was  par 
ticipated  in  by  many  of  the  Loyalist  belles  of  the  city.  The  day 
ended  with  a  grand  ball,  which  lasted  until  after  sunrise  the  next 
morning.  This  concluding  event,  however,  was  disturbed  by  an 
attack  on  the  abatis  north  of  town  by  Captain  McLane  and  a  de 
tachment  of  Americans.  About  the  same  time,  Howe  learned  that 
Lafayette  and  2,500  of  the  enemy  had  crossed  the  Schuylkill  and 
encamped  some  distance  below  Marston's  Ford.  He,  therefore, 
craved  the  distinction  of  closing  his  term  of  service  with  the  cap 
ture  of  Lafayette  and  his  force.  Although  he  and  Clinton  led  out 
11,000  men  in  the  effort  to  attain  this  object,  the  French  general 
and  his  men  succeeded  in  recrossing  the  river,  with  but  a  slight 
loss  at  the  ford.  Having  thus  failed  to  redeem  his  military  reputa 
tion,  General  Howe  relinquished  the  command  of  the  army  to 
Clinton,  and  sailed  for  England,  May  24,  1778.13 


13  Scharf  and   Westcott,   Hist,   of  Phila.,   I,   371-382  ;   Gentleman's   Magazine,   Aug.,    1778. 


52  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

On  the  same  day  the  new  commander  in  chief  held  a  council 
of  war,  which  decided  in  favor  of  evacuating  the  city ;  and  this  de 
cision  seems  to  have  been  communicated  to  a  meeting  of  "gentle 
men,  merchants,  and  citizens"  that  took  place  at  the  British  Tav 
ern.  The  local  historian,  Westcott,  says  that  notice  had  been  pre 
viously  given  that  all  deserters  from  the  American  army  who 
wished  to  go  to  England  would  be  sent,  and  that  "many  availed 
themselves  of  the  privilege."  Probably,  the  news  of  the  intended 
evacuation  did  not  come  as  an  entire  surprise  to  the  community, 
for  Mrs.  Drinker  recorded  in  her  Journal,  under  date  of  May  23d, 
that  preparations  for  the  departure  were  being  made  by  "many 
of  the  inhabitants."  On  June  3d  three  regiments  crossed  the  Dela 
ware  and  encamped  near  Cooper's  Ferry  and  Gloucester.  Two 
days  later  Captain  Johann  Heinrichs  of  the  Hessian  Jager  Corps, 
who  was  then  at  the  Neck  near  the  city,  wrote  to  his  brother  that 
"about  one  thousand  royally  inclined  families"  in  Philadelphia 
were  "willing  to  leave  hearth  and  home  and  with  their  chattels  go 
with  the  army."  A  few  days  later  still  the  British  Peace  Commis 
sioners  arrived  in  the  city;  and  one  of  them,  Lord  Carlisle,  wrote 
that  he  found  everything  in  confusion,  "the  army  upon  the  point 
of  leaving  town,  and  about  three  thousand  of  the  miserable  inhabi 
tants  embarked  on  board  our  ships,  to  convey  them  from  a  place 
where  they  thought  they  would  receive  no  mercy  from  those  who 
will  take  possession  after  us."  In  a  letter  of  June  15th  to  the 
colonial  secretary  in  London,  the  Commissioners  stated  that  they 
had  found  the  greater  part  of  those  who  had  put  themselves  under 
the  King's  protection  either  retiring  on  board  ships  in  the  Dela 
ware  River,  or  endeavoring  to  effect  their  reconciliation  with  Con 
gress  by  hastening  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Confed 
erated  States  of  America  within  the  allotted  time,  in  order  to  save 
their  property  from  confiscation  and  themselves  from  "the  violent 
resentment  of  an  exulting  and  unrestrained  enemy."  As  the  time 
for  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  had  already  been  extended  to  June 
1,  1778,  it  is  highly  improbable  that  additional  days  of  grace  were 
granted  to  those  seeking  to  make  amends  for  such  obvious  rea 
sons.  Nevertheless,  a  good  many  whose  past  conduct  identified 
them  as  undesirable  citizens  in  the  eyes  of  the  Whigs  chose  to  re 
main,  as  did  also  the  wives  and  children  of  some  undoubted  Loyal 
ists  who  left  with  the  troops,  or  had  taken  their  departure  earlier. 
In  these  closing  days  of  the  British  occupation,  Mrs.  Drinker  re- 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  53 

cords  the  parting  calls  of  Enoch  Story  and  Richard  Wain,  and  re 
marks  that  Samuel  Shoemaker  and  many  other  inhabitants  had 
gone  on  board  the  vessels.  Clinton's  intention  had  been  to  send 
his  troops  back  to  New  York  by  sea,  as  they  had  come ;  but  instead 
he  filled  the  waiting  fleet  with  Tory  families  and  ordered  his  army 
to  take  up  the  line  of  march  across  the  Jerseys.14 

The  van  of  the  army  withdrew  from  Philadelphia,  June  17th, 
the  main  body  following  on  the  next  day.  With  the  retiring  troops 
marched  the  Loyalist  regiments  which  had  been  formed  during  the 
British  occupation  of  the  city,  as  well  as  those  which  had  come  as 
part  of  the  invading  host.  Since  many  of  the  local  refugees  at 
tempted  to  carry  with  them  more  or  less  of  their  possessions,  and 
in  some  cases  the  appropriated  property  of  absent  Whigs,  they  im 
peded  the  movements  of  the  troops;  and  according  to  an  item  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Evening  Post  of  June  20th,  some  of  the  fugitives, 
along  with  other  prisoners,  were  captured  by  a  pursuing  body  of 
American  light  horse.  By  the  time  Allentown,  N.  J.,  was  reached, 
the  Queen's  Rangers  had  been  joined  by  many  new  refugees,  who 
supplied  the  guides  needed  for  the  remainder  of  the  march.  Near 
Monmouth  Court  House  strong  detachments  of  the  American  army, 
which  had  been  sent  forward  by  Washington,  attacked  the  British, 
June  28th,  killing  over  250  officers  and  men  and  wounding  many 
mpre,  including  Lieutenant  Colonel  Simcoe  and  Captain  Stephen- 
son  of  the  Rangers.  While  Clinton's  force  was  experiencing  these 
difficulties,  the  British  fleet  was  reported  in  Philadelphia  to  have 
lost  several  transports  to  the  enemy,  on  one  of  which  were  five  ref 
ugee  families  with  their  effects.  From  Monmouth  the  Queen's 
Rangers  led  the  way  to  Sandy  Hook,  where  on  July  5th  the  em 
barkation  of  the  troops  for  the  brief  passage  to  New  York  began. 
They  left  behind  them  in  New  Jersey  at  least  two  Tory  battalions, 
namely,  the  Volunteers  of  Ireland  and  the  West  Jersey  Regiment. 
At  the  close  of  August,  1778,  the  former  corps  was  stationed  at 
Six  Mile  Hill,  a  few  miles  to  the  southeast  of  New  Brunswick,  while 
the  latter  was  then  at  Sandy  Hook.  Towards  the  end  of  the  follow 
ing  February  the  Volunteers  of  Ireland  were  at  New  York,  with  a 
strength  of  509  men.  At  least  two  companies  of  the  West  Jersey 

14  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  383,  384  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog^  Oct., 
1889,  307;  XXII  (1898),  145. 


54  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Regiment,  if  not  the  entire  corps,  had  by  this  time  been  incor 
porated  with  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers  on  Staten  Island.15 

After  Clinton's  army  landed  at  New  York  City  the  various 
Loyalist  regiments,  which  had  accompanied  it,  were  distributed 
among  the  British  posts  of  the  neighborhood.  Thus,  by  July  15, 
1778,  the  Queen's  Rangers  were  encamped  at  King's  Bridge,  where 
they  were  soon  joined  by  the  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons  and  the 
Bucks  County  Light  Dragoons,  the  three  together  numbering  448 
men  at  the  end  of  August.  The  Pennsylvania  Loyalists  had  been 
sent  at  the  same  time  to  New  Utrecht,  L.  I.,  near  Brooklyn ;  while 
the  Roman  Catholic  Volunteers  and  the  Maryland  Loyalists  had 
been  assigned  to  Flushing  Fly,  a  few  miles  to  the  northeast.  Of  the 
three  corps  last  named  the  August  muster  showed  that  the  first 
had  188  men,  the  second  331,  and  the  third  171.  At  the  close  of 
February,  1779,  the  Volunteers  of  Ireland,  with  a  strength  of  509 
men,  were  at  New  York,  and  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers,  num 
bering  173  men,  were  also  there  and  thereabouts.16 

During  the  British  occupation  of  Philadelphia  the  town  suf 
fered  from  spoliation  and  destruction  of  property  to  such  an  ex 
tent  that,  when  the  Americans  returned  to  it,  they  found  it  in  a 
wretched  condition.  Nor  was  this  havoc  confined  to  the  estates 
of  the  absent  Whigs.  Robert  Morton,  the  Loyalist,  says  in  his 
Diary  that  the  British  set  fire  to  "the  Fairhill  mansion  house,  Jona 
than  Mifflin's,  and  many  others,  amounting  to  eleven,  besides  out 
houses,  barns,  etc.,"  on  November  22d.  All  these  were  the  build 
ings  of  Loyalists,  and  were  only  part  of  the  structures  similarly 
dealt  with  in  the  same  neighborhood,  where  eighteen  other  homes 
were  deliberately  burned,  the  reason  assigned — according  to  Mor 
ton — being  that  the  Americans  had  been  shooting  at  the  British 
pickets  from  these  houses.  Mrs.  Deborah  Logan,  who  witnessed 
this  incendiarism,  "counted  seventeen  fires"  from  the  roof  of  her 
mother's  house  on  Chestnut  Street.  Pierre  Du  Simitiere,  a  resi 
dent  of  Philadelphia  during  this  period,  wrote  that  it  would  be  in 
vain  to  attempt  to  give  an  account  of  the  devastation  committed 
by  those  in  possession  indiscriminately  on  Whig  and  Tory  prop- 


15  Siebert,   The  Fliyht   of  the  Am.   Loyalists   to   the  Brit.   Isles    (pamphlet),   8,   9,  and   the 
references   there   given  ;   Scott,   John   Graves  Simcoe,   22  ;   Reed,    The   Life  and    Times  of  Simcoe, 
29;  N.  J.  Archives,  2d   Ser.,   II,   263,   264,   267,   269,   272-276,   285-291,   296;   Simcoe's   Journal,   62 
passim;  Ms.   Muster  Rolls  of  Col.   Edward  Winslow    (in   possession  of  the   N.   B.   Hist.   Soc.,   St. 
John,  N.  B.) 

16  Rev.  W.  O.  Raymond's  Ms.  Notes  from  Col.  Edward  Winslow's  Muster  Rolls. 


THE  BRITISH  INVASION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  66 

erty  in  the  environs  of  the  city.  He  added  that  "the  persecution 
that  numbers  of  worthy  citizens  underwent  from  the  malice  of  the 
Tories;  the  tyranny  of  the  police  on  all  those  they  supposed  to  be 
the  friends  of  the  liberties  of  America;  all  these  would  fill  a  vol 
ume."  Entries  in  Christopher  Marshall's  Remembrancer  from  June 
23d  to  June  26th,  inclusive,  confirm  these  earlier  testimonies :  they 
speak  of  the  houses  ruined  and  destroyed  within  a  mile  or  two  of 
the  city  and  of  "the  desolation  with  the  dirt,  filth,  stench,  and  flies 
in  and  about  the  town"  as  scarcely  credible.  Marshall  writes  that 
he  was  struck  with  wonder  and  amazement  at  the  "scenes  of  malice 
and  wanton  cruelty,"  but  that  his  late  dwelling-house  was  not  so 
bad  as  many  others,  although  it  was  "quite  gone,"  its  roof,  doors, 
windows,  etc.,  being  "either  destroyed  or  carried  away  entirely." 
It  was  not  until  1782  that  an  appraisement  was  made  of  all  these 
damages,  in  accordance  with  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly.  It 
then  appeared  that  the  loss  sustained  by  the  inhabitants  of  Phila 
delphia  amounted  to  £187,280  5s.  According  to  this  appraisement, 
forty-six  persons  suffered  damages  exceeding  one  thousand  pounds, 
the  losses  of  eight  of  these  ranging  from  £3,000  up  to  £5,622.  As 
Germantown  had  suffered  during  the  early  days  of  the  occupation, 
having  been  the  headquarters  of  the  main  army  under  Howe  and 
the  scene  of  a  battle,  it  was  included  in  the  appraisment.  Its  claims 
numbered  137,  although  some  of  its  losses  were  not  included  in 
this  list.17 


17  Statutes   at   Large   of   Pa.,    IX,    146-151 ;    Laws   of   Pa.,    II,    389 ;    Scharf   and    Westcott, 
Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  367,  384,  386. 


CHAPTER  V 

WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON   SOME   OF  THE   LOYALISTS 

DURING  AND  AFTER  THE  BRITISH  OCCUPATION 

OF  PHILADELPHIA 

It  was  not  until  more  than  a  fortnight  after  the  British  had 
occupied  Philadelphia,  and  only  a  few  days  after  Howe  had  offered 
bounties  of  land  to  such  Loyalists  as  would  enlist,  that  a  new  Coun 
cil  of  Safety  was  constituted  by  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly, 
October  13,  1777.  This  new  council,  which  comprised  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  and  nine  other  gentlemen, 
was  vested  with  full  power  to  provide  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Commonwealth  by  such  ordinances  as  it  deemed  necessary,  and  to 
punish  capitally  or  otherwise  all  persons  guilty  of  transgressing 
these  ordinances  or  the  laws  of  the  State  previously  enacted.  This 
part  of  the  new  law  was  directed  against  those  considered  to  be 
inimical  to  the  common  cause  of  liberty.  Another  section  authorized 
the  seizure  of  provisions  and  other  necessaries  for  the  American 
army  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  State.  The  duration  of  these  pow 
ers  was  limited,  however,  to  the  end  of  the  next  meeting  of  the  As- 
,sembly.  On  October  21st  the  Council  of  Safety  began  to  operate 
under  this  measure  by  ordaining  the  collection  of  arms  and  accou 
trements  and  shoes  and  stockings  from  such  inhabitants  of  Chester 
County  as  had  failed  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  abjuration 
required  by  a  law  of  February  llth  in  the  same  year.  At  the  same 
time  it  passed  an  ordinance  naming  commissioners  for  the  City  of 
Philadelphia  and  the  eleven  counties  of  the  State,  who  were  to  seize 
the  personal  estates  and  effects  of  all  inhabitants  then  or  in  the  fu 
ture  guilty  of  abandoning  their  families  or  habitations  and  joining 
the  King's  army,  or  resorting  to  any  place  in  its  possession  within 
the  Commonwealth  and  supplying  the  royal  troops  with  provisions, 
intelligence,  or  other  aid.  The  commissioners  were  to  make  an  in 
ventory  of  the  property  seized,  dispose  of  the  perishable  part,  and 
keep  safely  the  money  and  goods  taken,  subject  to  future  disposi 
tion  by  the  Legislature.  The  Council  justified  its  action  by  declaring 
that  divers  persons  had  renounced  their  allegiance  to  the  State  and, 

56 


WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  57 

wickedly  joining  themselves  to  the  enemy,  had  afforded  assistance 
thereto  in  various  ways,  and  it  further  declared  that  it  was  re 
pugnant  to  the  practice  of  all  nations  to  protect  and  preserve  the 
property  of  their  avowed  foes.1 

An  ordinance  passed  a  little  later  authorized  the  collection  of 
sums  from  delinquents,  of  whom  there  were  many  in  the  State,  who 
were  indebted  to  the  public  treasury  for  advances  paid  to  their 
substitutes  in  the  militia,  the  collection  being  enforcible  by  the 
distress  and  sale  of  the  goods  and  chattels  of  such  as  refused  or 
neglected  to  pay.  This  regulation  was  soon  followed  by  another 
requiring  the  seizure  of  arms  and  accoutrements,  blankets,  and 
other  supplies  for  the  American  army  from  all  inhabitants  who 
had  not  yet  taken  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  abjuration.  On  Decem 
ber  6th  the  powers  granted  to  the  Council  of  Safety  were  termi 
nated  by  proclamation  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  these 
powers  having  been  in  force  less  than  two  months.2 

In  the  early  months  of  the  following  year  the  Assembly  at 
Lancaster  supplemented  the  confiscatory  measures  of  the  Council 
of  Safety  by  legislation  which  was  directed  against  the  college  in 
Philadelphia  and  against  persons  associating  with  the  enemy. 
Among  such  persons  were  several  trustees  of  the  college,  while  the 
name  of  the  Reverend  William  Smith,  D.D.,  the  provost  of  the  in 
stitution,  had  been  included  in  a  list  of  individuals  considered  to  be 
dangerous  to  the  State,  which  had  been  drawn  up  in  the  previous 
September.  Since,  therefore,  the  college  had  come  to  be  generally 
regarded  as  a  Tory  institution  and  was,  moreover,  in  the  enemy's 
hands,  the  Assembly  passed  an  act,  January  2,  1778,  by  whch  the 
authority  of  the  trustees  of  the  college  and  academy  was  suspended 
for  a  limited  time.  An  act  for  "the  attainder  of  divers  Traitors" 
was  also  passed  (March  6),  which  provided  that  if  certain  persons 
failed  to  appear  by  a  specified  date  (April  20th),  their  estates 
would  become  vested  in  the  Commonwealth.  Those  designated  were 
Joseph  Galloway,  Andrew  Allen  and  his  brothers  John  and  Wil 
liam,  the  Reverend  Jacob  Duche,  and  Samuel  Shoemaker,  all  of 
Philadelphia;  John  Potts  of  Philadelphia  County,  James  Rankin 
of  York,  Gilbert  Hicks  of  Bucks,  Nathaniel  Vernon  of  Chester, 
Christian  Foutz  of  Lancaster,  and  Reynold  Keene  and  John  Biddle 
of  Berks.  Provision  was  made  for  the  discovery  and  seizure  of  the 


1  Col.  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,  325,  326,  328,  329. 

2  Ibid.,  332,  333,  839,   863. 


58  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

estates  of  these  persons,  as  also  for  the  attainting  of  other  indi 
viduals  adhering  to  the  enemy.  Indeed,  the  act  declared  that  all 
subjects  and  inhabitants  of  the  State  who  should  at  any  time  during 
the  war  voluntarily  serve  the  King,  either  by  land  or  sea  in  an  of 
ficial  or  private  capacity,  would  ipso  facto  become  attainted  of  high 
treason,  and  debtors  of  traitors  were  ordered  to  pay  their  obliga 
tions  to  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  instead  of  to  the  proscribed. 
In  accordance  with  this  law,  eight  different  proclamations  were 
issued  by  the  Council  against  persons  designated  as  traitors  during 
a  period  which  included  the  years  from  1778  to  1781.  The  number 
of  those  thus  published  were  thirteen  in  the  first  proclamation 
(March  6th,  1778),  fifty-seven  in  the  second  (May  8th),  seventy- 
five  in  the  third  (May  21st),  two  hundred  in  the  fourth  (June 
15th),  and  sixty-two  in  the  fifth  (October  30th),  or  a  total  of  407 
during  the  year  1778.  The  proclamation  of  June  22,  1779,  named 
thirty;  that  of  October  3,  1780,  ten;  that  of  March  20,  1781,  fif 
teen;  and  the  last,  which  was  dated  April  27,  1781,  designated  one 
only.  Thus,  the  number  of  persons  announced  as  traitors  in  the 
entire  series  of  proclamations  for  being  reported  as  having  joined 
the  British  was  only  453,  of  which  109  were  former  inhabitants 
of  Philadelphia,  seventy-six  of  Philadelphia  County,  seventy-seven 
of  Bucks,  eighty-seven  of  Chester,  nine  of  York,  thirty-five  of 
Northampton,  four  of  Bedford,  three  of  Trenton,  N.  J.,  and  one 
each  of  the  States  of  Maryland  and  New  York.  As  this  total  was 
not  more  than  ten  percent  of  the  number  of  Loyalists  who  left 
Philadelphia  at  the  evacuation,  not  to  mention  the  numerous  ref 
ugees  whom  we  know  to  have  fled  from  the  State  during  the  pre 
ceding  years,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Council  of  Safety  might  have 
been  far  more  drastic  than  it  was  in  applying  the  penalties  of  at 
tainder  and  forfeiture  of  property  to  the  adherents  of  the  Crown.3 

Among  these  attainted  men  all  classes  were  represented: 
there  were  numbers  of  laborers,  yeomen,  and  husbandmen;  there 
were  many  also  who  had  been  engaged  in  shop-keeping  and  in  a  va 
riety  of  trades ;  among  the  merchants  we  find  Enoch  and  Thomas 
Story,  Abel  James,  John  and  Charmless  Hart,  Matthias  Aspden, 
Malcolm  Ross,  David  Sproat,  Oswald  Eve,  and  Robert  White ;  John 
Bray  and  Hugh  Lindon  were  school-masters;  among  the  attorneys 


»  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,  483-485,  504,  505,  512-518,  587 ;  XII,  27,  496,  665,  710 ;  Law* 
of  Pa.,  II,  165-176;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  377. 


WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  69 

were  Charles  Stedman,  Jr.,  Abel  Evans,  and  Christian  Hook;  at 
least  two  prominent  physicians  were  proscribed,  namely,  Anthony 
Yeldall  and  Andrew  DeNormandie;  William  Drewitt  Smith  and 
Christian  Voght,  the  latter  of  the  Borough  of  Lancaster,  were 
druggists ;  there  were  a  few  who  were  designated  as  "gentlemen," 
for  example,  Ross  Curry,  Alfred  and  William  Clifton,  John  Kears- 
ley,  Jr.,  and  John  Young  of  Graeme  Park;  then  there  were  some 
who  had  held  high  rank  in  civil  and  military  circles,  such  as  Joseph 
Galloway  and  Andrew  Allen,  "late  members  of  the  Congress  of  the 
thirteen  United  Colonies,"  the  Reverend  Jacob  Duche,  the  first 
chaplain  of  Congress ;  John  Biddle,  collector  of  excise  for  the  County 
of  Berks  and  deputy  quarter  master  general  of  the  American  army ; 
Christian  Foutz,  lieutenant  colonel  of  militia  in  Chester  County, 
and  Benedict  Arnold,  major  general  in  the  army  of  the  United 
States ;  and  finally  there  were  numerous  officials  of  minor  rank,  in 
cluding  Joseph  Swanwick  and  John  Bartlett  of  the  Custom  House 
of  Philadelphia ;  John  Smith,  gauger  of  the  port  of  the  city ;  Sam 
uel  Carrigues,  Sr.,  clerk  of  the  market ;  William  Austen,  keeper  of 
the  New  Jersey  ferry ;  Abraham  Iredell,  surveyor ;  Nathaniel  Ver- 
non,  sheriff  of  Chester  County;  Samuel  Biles,  sheriff  of  Bucks 
County;  Robert  Land,  justice  of  the  peace  of  Northampton  County, 
and  Samuel  Shoemaker,  alderman  of  Philadelphia. 

/  On  April  1,  1778,  the  Assembly  had  passed  a  law  "for  the  Fur 
ther  Security  of  the  Government,"  which  extended  the  time  for 
subscribing  to  the  test  to  June  1st.  Any  male  white  inhabitant  of 
eighteen  years  of  age  or  older  who  failed  to  comply  was  to  be 
incapable  of  bringing  any  legal  action,  serving  as  a  guardian,  ex 
ecutor,  or  administrator,  receiving  a  legacy,  or  making  a  will,  be 
sides  being  subject  to  double  taxes.  Non-jurors  might  be  impris 
oned  for  three  months,  or  they  might  be  fined  £10  or  less  and  re 
quired  to  leave  the  State  within  thirty  days,  besides  forfeiting  their 
goods  and  chattels  to  the  Commonwealth  and  their  lands  and  tene 
ments  to  the  persons  entitled  by  law  to  inherit  them.  As  many 
individuals  had  been  entering  Philadelphia  on  various  pretexts  since 
its  occupation  by  the  British  army,  permits  issuable  by  Congress, 
the  Executive  Council,  or  General  Washington  were  to  be  required. 
The  failure  to  observe  this  requirement  laid  the  delinquent  liable 
to  a  fine  of  £50  or  less  and  imprisonment  during  the  court's  pleas 
ure.  The  disabilities  imposed  upon  non- jurors  by  the  present  law 
and  the  test  acts  of  1777  were  to  last  for  life.  Office-holders  under 


60  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

the  proprietary  government  who  did  not  renounce  their  allegiance 
to  the  Crown  before  June  1,  1778,  or  within  ten  days  after  return 
ing  to  the  State,  were  to  have  the  privilege  of  selling  their  estates 
within  ninety  days,  under  permission  from  the  Supreme  Executive 
Council,  and  departing,  or  be  deemed  enemies  and  compelled  to  for 
feit  their  goods  and  chattels,  lands  and  tenements.  Finally,  all 
trustees,  provosts,  rectors,  professors,  and  tutors  of  any  college  or 
academy,  all  school-masters,  merchants,  traders,  lawyers,  doctors, 
druggists,  notaries,  and  clerks  who  did  not  submit  to  the  test  would 
thereby  be  disabled  from  following  their  vocations  and,  on  convic 
tion  of  disregarding  this  injunction,  might  be  fined  as  much  as 
£500.  The  object  of  this  last  section  of  the  new  test  law  was  to 
enable  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  to  deal  with  the  officers  of 
the  College,  Academy,  and  Charitable  School  of  the  City  of  Phila 
delphia.4 

It  was  not,  however,  until  in  February,  1779,  that  a  resolution 
was  adopted  appointing  a  committee  to  investigate  the  early  his 
tory,  the  purposes,  and  the  condition  of  the  college.  In  consonance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  trustees,  Provost  Smith  submitted  a  written 
defense  of  the  course  and  conduct  of  the  trustees  and  other  officers, 
but  without  the  desired  effect ;  for  on  the  27th  of  the  following  No 
vember  a  law  was  passed  by  which  the  proprietary  charters  of  the 
College,  Academy,  and  Charitable  School  were  "amended"  and  the 
provost  and  all  others  connected  with  these  institutions  were  re 
moved.  The  name  of  the  college  was  changed  to  "The  University 
of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,"  and  the  rights  and  property  hitherto 
vested  in  the  trustees  were  transferred  to  a  new  board  appointed 
by  the  Assembly,  which  also  authorized  the  Supreme  Executive 
Council  to  reserve  a  sufficient  number  of  estates  confiscated  from 
attainted  Loyalists,  but  as  yet  unsold,  to  endow  the  reorganized  es 
tablishment  with  an  annual  income  not  to  exceed  £1,500.  During 
the  next  few  years  the  university  was  vested  with  sixty  such  es 
tates.  The  annual  rent  charges  which  these  properties  would  pro 
duce  were  carefully  computed  in  bushels  of  wheat  and  totaled  not 
far  from  1,550  bushels.  The  estates  thus  appropriated  for  the  uni 
versity  were  scattered  through  five  counties,  twenty-one  of  them 
being  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  twenty-one  others  in  the  county 
of  the  same  name,  seven  each  in  Berks  and  Chester  counties,  three 
in  Bucks,  and  one  in  Lancaster.  Five  of  the  properties  in  Berks 


Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  149-151 ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  377. 


WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  61 

County  had  belonged  to  Andrew  Allen,  and  eight  of  those  in  Phila 
delphia  had  been  held  by  John  Parrock.  Only  two  of  the  other  es 
tates  had  belonged  to  a  single  owner  at  the  time  of  their  confisca 
tion.  In  addition  to  these  sixty  properties,  the  trustees,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  purchased  fifteen 
other  confiscated  real  estates  at  the  public  sales,  all  but  three  of 
these  being  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia.  They  also  bought  fifteen 
"rent  charges,  together  with  all  the  estate,  interest  and  claim  of 
the  Commonwealth"  in  and  to  the  lots  and  lands  in  the  city  from 
which  these  rentals  emanated.  Eleven  of  these  last  purchases  had 
belonged  to  John  Parrock  and  the  other  four  to  Samuel  Shoemaker. 
Thus,  by  the  purchase  of  the  trustees  and  by  the  action  of  the 
Council,  the  university  secured  a  total  of  ninety  confiscated  proper 
ties,  of  which  forty-eight  were  located  in  Philadelphia  and  twenty- 
four  in  the  county  of  the  same  name.  As  the  income  of  these  prop 
erties  did  not  amount  as  yet  to  more  than  a  yearly  value  of  £1,381 
5s  iy%d,  computing  wheat  at  the  rate  of  ten  shillings  per  bushel, 
the  Legislature  proceeded  on  September  22,  1785,  to  enact  that  the 
"several  confiscated  estates,  lands,  tenements  and  heriditaments 
and  rent  charges"  be  fully  and  absolutely  vested  in  and  confirmed 
to  the  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania."5 

Meantime,  Thomas  Mifflin  and  nine  other  trustees  of  the  old 
college  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Council  of  Censors  proposing 
to  restore  the  original  corporation.  The  committee  to  which  this 
memorial  was  referred  reported  in  favor  of  the  action  requested. 
The  matter  was  also  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Assembly 
by  a  letter  from  the  former  provost,  Dr.  Smith,  and  the  committee 
named  to  consider  the  question  reported  that  the  college  had  never 
forfeited  its  rights  nor  committed  any  offense  against  the  laws. 
The  committee,  therefore,  recommended  a  resolution  for  adoption 
repealing  the  act  of  November  27,  1779,  by  which  the  property  and 
rights  of  the  college  had  been  transferred  to  the  board  named  by 
the  Assembly. 

In  accordance  with  these  recommendations,  the  Assembly  by 
a  vote  of  twenty-eight  yeas  to  twenty-five  nays  enacted  a  law, 
March  6,  1789,  in  the  preamble  of  which  the  admission  was  frankly 
made  that  the  corporation,  trustees,  professors,  and  other  officers 
of  the  old  college  and  its  subsidiary  schools  had  been  deprived  of 
their  charters,  franchises,  and  estates  without  trial  by  jury  or 


6  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  223-229,  258  ;  III,  113-121,  302-306. 


62  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

proof  of  forfeiture.  The  new  law  therefore  repealed  such  parts  of 
the  act  of  November  27,  1779,  as  concerned  the  ancient  corpora 
tion,  its  charters,  and  its  former  rights,  and  provided  for  the  rein 
statement  of  the  trustees  and  the  restoration  of  the  faculty  to  all 
of  the  rights,  emoluments,  and  estates  which  they  had  formerly  held 
and  enjoyed,  except  such  rents  and  profits  as  had  been  received  by 
the  board  of  the  university  before  March  2,  1789,  such  sums  as  had 
already  been  paid  out  in  the  discharge  of  just  debts  and  contracts, 
and  such  bonds  and  mortgages  as  had  been  transferred,  cancelled, 
or  paid  by  it.  The  trustees  of  the  university  were,  however,  to  be 
accountable  to  the  trustees  of  the  college  for  the  value  of  these 
mortgages  and  bonds.  Inasmuch  as  the  unrepealed  sections  of  the 
law  of  1779  left  the  university  still  intact  and  in  possession  of  the 
confiscated  estates  with  which  it  had  been  endowed,  the  effect  of 
the  act  of  1789  was  to  make  the  college  and  the  university  separate 
institutions.6 

For  the  next  seven  years  the  two  institutions,  both  located  in 
Philadelphia,  sustained  the  relation  of  rivals  in  the  educational 
field.  Then,  their  respective  boards  addressed  petitions  to  the  As 
sembly,  in  which  they  set  forth  that  they  had  agreed  to  certain 
terms  of  union  in  the  desire  that  the  two  might  be  combined  by 
legislative  action.  Accordingly,  an  act  was  passed,  September  30, 
1791,  which  provided  that  the  name  of  the  resulting  institution 
should  be  "The  University  of  Pennsylvania,"  the  location  remain 
ing  in  the  city;  it  also  provided  that  the  existing  boards  of  trus 
tees  should  elect  twelve  persons  from  among  their  own  members 
on  or  before  December  1st,  who,  with  the  governor  of  the  State, 
should  constitute  a  new  board.  This  body  was  to  have  control  of  all 
funds,  was  to  support  a  charity  school  for  boys  and  another  for 
girls,  and  was  to  choose  the  faculties  in  arts  and  medicine  for  the 
new  university  from  each  constituent  institution  equally.  By  this 
highly  commendable  action,  the  way  was  cleared  for  the  future 
growth  and  usefulness  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.7 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Governor  John  Penn  had  been 
deposed  and  the  proprietary  regime  superseded  since  the  summer 
of  1776,  the  Penns  were  left  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  for  more  than 
three  years  as  to  the  settlement  of  their  claims.  In  February,  1778, 
shortly  after  the  Assembly  had  passed  the  act  of  attainder  and 


«  Laws  of  Pa.,  Ill,  302-306 ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  385,  386. 
7  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,   XIV,   184-187. 


WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  63 

confiscation  against  Loyalists  adhering  to  the  enemy,  it  took  up 
this  highly  important  question.  Governor  Penn  was  notified  at 
this  time,  and  chose  counsel  to  represent  the  family  interests. 
Still,  no  action  was  taken  until  November  27,  1779,  when  after 
several  days  spent  in  discussion  of  the  subject,  the  Assembly 
passed  a  law  in  which  the  proprietary  charter  was  construed  as  an 
instrument  "containing  a  public  trust  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
should  settle  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  coupled  with  a  particu 
lar  interest  accruing  to  ....  William  Penn  and  his  heirs,  but  in 
its  very  nature  and  essence  subject  and  subordinate  to  the  great 
and  general  purposes  of  society  sanctioned  in  the  said  grant."  The 
law  further  declared  that  the  claims  of  the  proprietaries  to  the 
whole  of  the  soil  bestowed  by  the  charter,  and  likewise  to  the  quit 
rents  and  purchase  money  for  grants  since  made  by  them,  were 
no  longer  consistent  with  the  safety,  liberty,  and  happiness  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  had  rescued  themselves  and  their  possessions 
from  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain,  and  were  then  defending  them 
selves  from  the  inroads  of  the  savages ;  and  it  asserted  that  effec 
tive  measures  were  demanded  by  the  great  expenses  of  the  war 
and  by  the  daily  emigration  of  "multitudes  of  inhabitants"  to 
neighboring  States,  where  lands  were  being  located  and  settled. 
Accordingly,  the  new  law  decreed  that  the  interest,  title,  and  claim 
which  the  proprietaries  possessed  in  the  soil  of  the  late  Province  on 
July  4,  1776,  together  with  the  royalties,  lordships,  and  all  other 
hereditaments  authorized  by  the  charter,  were  henceforth  vested 
in  the  Commonwealth,  and  subject  to  division,  appropriation,  and 
conveyance,  in  accordance  with  such  laws  as  might  be  later  enacted. 
Exception  was  made,  however,  of  the  rights  appertaining  to  other 
persons  than  the  proprietaries,  by  virtue  of  any  deeds,  warrants,  or 
surveys  of  grants  derived  from  the  Penns,  and  filed  in  the  Land 
Office  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  That  is  to  say,  the 
law  confirmed  both  the  legal  and  equitable  rights  of  such  persons. 
To  the  proprietaries  themselves  it  secured  their  private  estates 
and  inheritances,  besides  such  manors  or  "proprietary  tenths"  as 
had  been  surveyed  and  reserved  in  the  Land  Office  by  July  4,  1776, 
and  in  addition  the  quit  rents  and  other  rents  belonging  to  them. 
It  was  further  provided  that  commissioners  should  be  appointed 
to  constitute  a  Board  of  Property,  with  power  to  collect  all  papers, 
records,  maps,  and  surveys  in  the  possession  of  the  propietaries  or 
their  agents  respecting  the  lands  within  the  State,  and  with  power 


64  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

also  to  grant  patents,  confirm  titles,  appoint  surveyors  and  other 
officers,  and  receive  money  arising  from  the  sale  of  lands  not  as 
yet  surveyed  or  located.8 

In  compensation  for  the  proprietary  rights  of  which  the  Penns 
were  deprived  by  the  above  provisions,  and  in  "remebrance  of  the 
enterprising  spirit"  of  the  founder  of  the  State  and  "of  the  expecta 
tions  and  dependence  of  his  descendants,"  the  law  awarded  the 
sum  of  £130,000  sterling  to  the  devisees  and  legatees  of  Thomas 
Penn,  in  such  proportions  as  should  thereafter  be  fixed  by  the  Leg 
islature.  Although  a  section  of  the  law  provided  that  no  part  of 
the  sum  stipulated  should  be  paid  within  less  than  one  year  after 
the  termination  of  the  war,  it  was  not  until  February  9,  1785,  that 
an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  immediate  payment  of  £15,000 
as  the  first  annual  instalment.  This  amount  had  not  been  fully 
paid,  however,  at  the  end  of  March,  1787.  Meanwhile,  interest 
was  accruing  on  the  residue  of  the  debt.  Hence,  at  this  time 
(March  28th),  it  was  enacted  that  the  State  treasurer  pay  the  re 
spective  balances  still  due  on  the  first  instalment  to  John  Penn, 
the  elder,  and  John  Penn,  the  younger,  together  with  interest  at 
six  percent  per  annum  from  September  3,  1784,  and  the  Supreme 
Executive  Council  was  ordered  to  issue  warrants  on  the  treasurer 
forthwith  for  the  discharge  of  the  second  and  third  instalments 
of  £15,000  each,  with  interest  from  the  dates  of  their  maturity, 
respectively.  Warrants  or  orders  for  what  appear  to  have  been  the 
fourth  and  fifth  instalments,  although  designated  the  fifth  in 
stalment  in  the  Records,  were  issued  on  March  20,  1789,  when 
the  elder  Penn  received  £7,500  and  the  younger  Penn  received 
£22,500.  The  sixth  instalment,  which  amounted  to  £25,812  10s, 
was  ordered  paid  a  year  later.  Thus,  by  the  spring  of  1790, 
the  Penns  were  in  possession  of  £100,000  out  of  the  compensation 
granted  them  by  the  State.  On  April  9,  1791,  the  Legislature  made 
provision  for  the  appropriation  of  a  sufficient  amount  of  six  percent 
stock  created  by  the  State's  subscription  to  a  United  States  loan 
to  discharge  the  last  two  instalments,  and  empowered  the  gov 
ernor — the  Executive  Council  had  been  supplanted  by  a  single 
executive — to  draw  the  warrants  on  the  State  treasurer  for  all  ar 
rearages  of  principal  and  interest,  whenever  the  Penns  or  their 
agents  should  apply  for  the  payment  of  the  debt  still  due  them.9 


8  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  230-234  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,   Hist,  of  Phila.,   I,  406,   407. 

9  Laws  of  Pa.,  Ill,  200 ;  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  XII,  431-435 ;  XIV,  81-85. 


WHIG  REPRISALS  UPON  LOYALISTS  65 

The  claim  made  by  the  proprietaries  on  the  British  government 
for  the  losses  and  sufferings  sustained  by  them  in  consequence  of 
the  Revolution  amounted  to  £944,817  sterling.  This  was  reduced 
after  prolonged  investigation  by  the  Commissioners  on  Loyalists' 
Claims  to  £500,000,  and  that  estimate  was  recommended  to  Parlia 
ment  for  settlement.  On  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Pitt,  however,  that 
body  departed  in  this  instance  from  its  practice  of  granting  a  stip 
ulated  sum  as  in  the  claims  of  other  adherents  of  the  Crown:  it 
passed  an  act  in  1790  by  which  an  annuity  of  £3,000  was  granted 
to  John  Penn,  the  son  of  the  elder  branch,  and  an  annuity  of 
£1,000  to  John  Penn,  the  son  of  the  younger  branch  of  the  family. 
Sabine  remarks  that  "the  Penn  estate  was  by  far  the  largest  that 
was  forfeited  in  America,  and  perhaps  that  was  ever  sequestered 
during  any  civil  war  in  either  hemisphere" ;  but  he  also  calls  at 
tention  to  the  fact  that  the  large  sum  which  they  received  from 
Pennsylvania,  together  with  their  annuities  from  Parliament,  the 
immense  estate  which  they  retained  in  the  Commonwealth  founded 
by  their  ancestor,  and  the  offices  subsequently  conferred  on  them 
probably  placed  them  "in  a  condition  quite  as  independent  as  that 
which  they  enjoyed  previous  to  the  Revolution."  Certain  it  is  that 
the  Penns  remained  the  largest  landed  proprietors  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  by  reason  of  their  manors  and  other  real  estate,  together 
with  the  ground  rents  and  quit  rents  which  they  derived  there 
from.10 


10  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,   162,   163  ;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,   XVI,   4,  83,   800. 
Scharf  and  Westcott,   Hist,   of  Phila.,   I,   407. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  PURCHASE  OF  THE  INDIAN  TRACT  ON  LAKE  ERIE 

Besides  the  public  domain  which  the  revolutionary  government 
of  Pennsylvania  took  from  the  proprietaries  and  the  numerous  pri 
vate  estates  which  it  confiscated  from  the  attainted  Loyalists,  a 
large  triangular  tract  of  territory  fronting  on  Lake  Erie  was  ac 
quired  from  the  Six  Nation  Indians  by  purchase,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  they  had  allied  themselves  with  the  British  early  in 
the  war,  had  made  Fort  Niagara  their  headquarters,  and  had  en 
gaged  in  many  expeditions  with  Butler's  Rangers  against  the 
frontier  settlements.  The  first  definite  action  looking  to  the  pur 
chase  of  the  tract  in  question  was  taken  by  the  Assembly,  Septem 
ber  25,  1783,  when  a  resolution  was  adopted  by  that  body  authoriz 
ing  the  appointment  of  purchasing  commissioners.  These  commis 
sioners  seem  not  to  have  been  named  by  the  Executive  Council  un 
til  late  in  February,  1784,  and  on  December  4th  the  Council  was 
able  to  report  that  the  purchase  had  lately  been  made.  The  lands 
thus  secured  were  offered  for  sale  to  white  settlers  at  a  price  which 
proved  to  be  too  high  to  attract  many  buyers ;  and  the  Council  sug 
gested  to  the  Assembly  in  a  message  of  February  23,  1787,  that 
the  price  be  lowered,  since  only  eight  warrants  had  been  issued 
for  lots  within  the  purchased  tract  during  the  past  six  months.1 

On  September  4,  1788,  Congress  passed  an  act  by  which  the 
United  States  government  relinquished  and  transferred  to  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania  its  right,  title,  and  claim  to  the  tract  on  Lake  Erie. 
As  a  meeting  of  the  Northern  and  Western  tribes  was  soon  to  be 
held  at  Muskingum  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  Continental  commis 
sioners,  the  State  Assembly  took  action  on  September  13th,  em 
powering  the  Council  to  appoint  two  commissioners  to  secure  from 
the  forthcoming  council  a  conveyance  of  its  rights  in  the  purchased 
tract,  as  the  Western  tribes  had  acknowledged  claims  therein.  Ac 
cordingly,  General  Richard  Butler  and  General  John  Gibson  were 
named  as  the  agents  of  the  Commonwealth  to  attend  the  approach 
ing  council.  The  instructions,  which  were  framed  for  their  guid- 


1  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XIV,  45,  271,  273 ;  XV,  167. 

66 


PURCHASE  OF  THE  INDIAN  TRACT  ON  LAKE  ERIE  67 

ance,  informed  the  new  commissioners  that  the  State  was  already 
"vested  with  both  right  of  jurisdiction  and  soil,"  but  that  the  pur 
chase  of  the  claims  of  the  natives,  which  they  were  to  effect,  was 
agreeable  "to  the  constant  usage  of  Pennsylvania,"  and  that  they 
were  to  exercise  their  discretion  whether  to  commence  the  busi 
ness  with  the  Indians  at  present,  or  postpone  it  until  a  more  fa 
vorable  time,  according  to  the  temper  in  which  they  might  find  the 
tribes.  Evidently  the  Indians  manifested  a  friendly  disposition, 
for  on  March  4,  1789,  the  Council  sent  to  the  Legislature  the  report 
of  the  commissioners  that  the  transaction  had  been  satisfactorily 
completed,  together  with  an  Indian  deed  of  cession  covering  the 
tract.2 


2  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XV,  631,  609 ;  XVI,  36,   37.  139. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND 

ELSEWHERE  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AFTER  THE 

DEPARTURE  OF  THE  BRITISH 

On  the  day  of  the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia,  June  18,  1778, 
Captain  Allen  McLane  and  his  Maryland  troopers  followed  the 
British  as  they  retreated  into  the  Neck  and  captured  Captain 
Thomas  Sandford  of  the  Bucks  County  Light  Dragoons  and  Fred 
erick  Varnum,  keeper  of  the  prison  under  Galloway.  On  the  next 
day  the  American  forces  re-entered  Philadelphia,  and  Major  Gen 
eral  Benedict  Arnold  was  made  commandant  of  the  city.  Arnold  at 
once  issued  a  proclamation  calling  attention  to  the  resolution  of 
Congress  of  June  4th,  which  requested  Washington  to  see  that 
order  was  preserved  in  the  town  and  to  prevent  the  removal  or 
sale  of  the  King's  goods  that  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
people.  Persons  having  a  supply  of  certain  articles,  including  all 
kinds  of  provisions  beyond  family  need,  were  to  make  return  to  the 
town  major.  A  large  quantity  of  salt  and  other  supplies  were  dis 
covered  and  seized  under  this  order.  Severe  punishment  was  to  be 
meted  out  to  any  found  concealing  British  officers  or  soldiers  or  de 
serters  from  the  Continental  army.  On  June  20th,  the  city  and  its 
markets  were  declared  open,  and  on  the  25th  and  26th,  Congress 
and  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  respectively,  began  their  ses 
sions  in  the  city. 

The  returning  inhabitants  had  many  complaints  to  make  con 
cerning  the  damage  or  removal  of  their  property  by  the  depart 
ing  host,  one  giving  notice  that  "Joseph  Fox,  a  noted  traitor,  had 
seized  and  taken  away  four  tons  of  blistered  steel,  and  all  the  ap 
paratus  belonging  to  the  steel  furnace,"  which  he  had  sold  in  the 
city;  while  another  reported  the  removal  of  a  printing  press  and 
its  belongings,  which  were  carted  away  in  the  King's  wagons  by 
James  Robertson,  the  Tory  printer  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette. 
In  August,  Arnold  had  a  court-martial  held  for  the  trial  of  George 
Spangler  and  Frederick  Verner  on  the  charge  of  being  spies  in  the 
British  employ.  The  former  was  hanged  the  same  month ;  but  the 

68 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        69 

latter  was  kept  in  prison  until  he  was  finally  exchanged.  As  many 
other  Loyalists  remained  in  Philadelphia,  the  Whigs  preferred 
charges  before  Chief  Justice  Thomas  McKean  against  some  of  these 
for  aiding  the  British  army,  formed  an  association,  afterwards 
called  "the  Patriotic  Society, "  with  the  object  of  ' 'disclosing  and 
bringing  to  justice  all  Tories  within  their  knowledge,"  and  commit 
ted  an  attack  on  the  house  of  Peter  Deshong,  who  escaped  injury 
by  surrendering  to  the  authorities  as  a  proclaimed  traitor.  In  Sep 
tember  Deshong,  together  with  several  others  accused  of  treason, 
was  tried  and  acquitted ;  but  Abraham  Carlisle  of  Philadelphia  and 
John  Roberts  of  Lower  Marion,  two  Quakers  well  along  in  years, 
were  convicted  and,  despite  the  appeals  of  some  members  of  their 
juries  and  of  numerous  Whigs  for  commutation  of  sentence,  were 
executed.  Many  other  prosecutions  followed  during  the  months  of 
November  and  December.1 

Meanwhile,  General  Arnold  was  occupying  the  mansion  of  Rich 
ard  Penn,  living  in  great  extravagance,  associating  chiefly  with 
Tory  families,  and  getting  into  trouble  through  his  gross  venality. 
Already  in  December,  1778,  it  was  being  rumored  among  his  ac 
quaintances  that  Arnold  would  be  discharged  from  his  post,  "be 
ing  thought  a  pert  Tory,"  and  soon  after  that  he  was  behaving 
"with  lenity"  towards  this  class  of  Philadelphians.  In  the  latter 
part  of  March  the  commandant  bought  a  handsome  country  es 
tate  at  Mount  Pleasant,  which  a  purchasing  agent  of  General  Wash 
ington  says  he  paid  for  by  appropriating  to  his  own  use  $50,000 
which  the  agent  left  to  his  order  for  the  liquidation  of  bills  for 
army  stores  and  clothing.  At  length,  Arnold's  corruption  and  dis 
play  became  so  scandalous  that  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
formulated  a  series  of  charges  against  him,  which  he  evaded  by 
leaving  the  city.  By  direction  of  Congress  a  court-martial 
was  held  to  try  Arnold,  but  not  until  in  January,  1780. 
Being  convicted  on  the  minor  charge  of  making  private  use  of  the 
army  wagons,  he  was  sentenced  to  receive  a  reprimand  from  the 
commander  in  chief.  He  was  exasperated  by  this  verdict,  and  in 
the  following  spring  he  began  his  traitorous  correspondence  with 
General  Clinton.  In  mid-summer  he  was  appointed  commander  of 
the  fortress  of  West  Point,  "the  gateway  of  the  Hudson  Valley," 
at  his  own  request  by  Washington.  The  arrangements  for  the  sur 
render  of  this  important  post  to  the  British  were  completed  at 


1  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  385,  886,  387,  394. 


70  THE  LOYALISTS  OP  PENNSYLVANIA 

Arnold's  secret  conference  with  Major  John  Andre  at  Stony  Point 
on  a  dark  night  in  September ;  but  Andre  was  captured  immediately 
afterward  near  Tarrytown.  A  letter  unsuspectingly  sent  by  Col 
onel  Jameson  informed  Arnold  of  the  British  officer's  arrest,  and 
he  fled  on  horseback  to  the  river,  where  he  boarded  the  enemy's 
sloop  of  war  Vulture  under  a  flag  of  truce.  By  October  8th,  he  was 
at  the  head  of  the  American  Legion,  a  corps  of  Loyalists  newly 
organized  by  him  in  New  York,  which  then  numbered  only  75 
troopers.  This  was  the  command  he  got  as  part  of  the  price  of  his 
perfidy;  but  he  also  received  £6,000  sterling.  On  October  2d, 
Arnold's  estate  at  Mount  Pleasant  was  confiscated  by  the  Supreme 
Executive  Council.  It  was  subsequently  sold  to  pay  off  a  mortgage. 
On  October  27th,  the  Council  ordered  his  Loyalist  bride,  who  was 
a  daughter  of  Chief  Justice  Edward  Shippen  of  Philadelphia,  to 
leave  the  State  within  two  weeks.2 

A  widespread  fear  of  Toryism  continued  to  prevail  in  Phila 
delphia  after  the  re-occupation  of  the  city  by  the  Americans.  Dur 
ing  1779  a  number  of  supposed  British  sympathizers  were  prose 
cuted  on  various  charges ;  but  most  of  them  were  acquitted,  and  a 
few  were  discharged  because  witnesses  failed  to  appear  against 
them,  although  they  were  required  to  give  security  for  their  good 
behavior.  Of  the  few  convicted,  Samuel  R.  Fisher,  a  Quaker,  was 
sentenced  to  jail  for  having  sent  information  to  the  enemy  at  New 
York;  George  Hardy,  who  was  to  suffer  capital  punishment  for 
having  helped  to  disarm  citizens  of  Southwark,  was  reprieved  with 
the  rope  around  his  neck  until  after  the  session  of  the  next  As 
sembly;  Joseph  Pritchard  was  found  guilty  of  misprision  of  trea 
son  and  laid  under  the  penalty  of  losing  his  property  and  being  im 
prisoned  during  the  war,  and  William  Cassedy,  alias  Thompson, 
was  sentenced  to  death  for  high  treason.3 

That  the  community  was  not  disposed  to  relax  its  vigilance 
in  regard  to  the  Loyalists  is  shown  also  by  certain  events  occurring 
in  the  spring  of  this  year.  Thus,  at  the  end  of  March,  the  Assembly 
passed  a  law  empowering  the  officers  of  the  militia  to  disarm  non- 
jurors  within  their  respective  districts  against  whom  sworn  in 
formation  should  be  given  before  a  justice,  permission  being 
granted  to  the  officers  to  remove  cannon  and  all  other  warlike 


aScharf  and  Westcott,   Hist,  of  Phila.,   I,   389-393;   Rev.   W.    O.    Raymond's   Ms.    Notes   on 
Col.  Edward  Winslow's  Muster  Rolls. 

•  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  400. 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW         71 

weapons  from  buildings  belonging  to  the  suspects.  In  May  a  pub 
lic  meeting  was  held  to  take  measures  for  ascertaining  whether 
inimical  persons  still  remained  in  the  city.  Its  action  resulted  in 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  hear  evidence  against  any  who 
might  be  accused  of  unfriendliness  to  the  United  States.  As  the 
proceedings  of  this  committee  did  not  meet  with  popular  approval, 
the  companies  of  militia  formed  a  committee  of  their  own,  which 
on  October  4th  arrested  several  citizens  and  took  them  to  a  tavern 
on  the  common,  where  200  of  the  militia  also  assembled.  This  body 
then  marched  to  the  house  of  James  Wilson,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  who 
had  defended  certain  Tories  accused  of  treason,  taking  with  them 
two  cannon  and  a  number  of  Quakers  and  Tories  whom  they  had  ar 
rested.  Anticipating  an  attack,  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  friends  were 
prepared  to  resist.  Before  the  mob  in  the  street  was  finally  dis 
persed,  an  affray  occurred  in  which  some  persons  were  injured 
and  three  were  killed.  Twenty-seven  of  the  attacking  militiamen 
were  seized  and  incarcerated,  but  were  admitted  to  bail  the  next 
day.  On  October  6th  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  issued  a  proc 
lamation  calling  on  the  other  rioters  and  the  inmates  of  Wilson's 
house  to  surrender  themselves,  pending  a  judicial  inquiry,  and 
some  of  the  latter  did  so.  The  Council  attributed  this  tumult  to  the 
"undue  countenance  and  encouragement"  shown  to  disaffected  per 
sons  by  "men  of  rank  and  character  in  other  respects,"  as  also  to  the 
frequent  disregard  of  the  laws  and  public  authority  of  the  State. 
Those  who  gave  themselves  up  in  obedience  to  the  Council's  proc 
lamation  were  bound  over  in  large  sums  for  their  appearance  at 
the  next  session  of  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer.  David  Sole- 
bury  Franks,  the  commissary  of  British  prisoners,  who  was  in 
volved  in  this  affair  and  had  surrendered  himself  along  with  the 
others,  was  ordered  to  depart  the  State  but  delayed  until  Novem 
ber  22d,  when  Joseph  Reed,  the  president  of  the  Council,  informed 
him  that  he  was  expected  to  set  out  on  his  journey  the  next  day 
without  further  indulgence.  As  for  the  others  involved  in  this  af 
fair,  neither  the  militia  nor  Wilson's  friends  were  prosecuted,  the 
Assembly  passing  an  act  of  amnesty  in  their  behalf  on  March  13, 
1780.4 

Meanwhile,  on  August  11,  1779,  the  Supreme  Executive  Coun 
cil  asked  the  chief  justice  of  the  State  for  his  opinion  regarding 

*  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  346-348 ;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,  121,  130,  137-139,  145, 
162;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  401-403;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II, 
444,  445  ;  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  257. 


72  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

the  status  of  certain  Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  who  had  been  cap 
tured  at  sea  while  engaged  in  a  privateering  enterprise  and  were 
already  confined  in  the  State  prison.  The  chief  justice  replied  that 
such  of  the  prisoners  as  had  not  owed  allegiance  since  February 
11,  1777  (when  the  law  defining  treason  and  misprision  of  treason 
was  enacted  by  the  Assembly) ,  were  to  be  deemed  prisoners  of  war, 
while  any  others  might  be  proceeded  against  as  traitors  under  the 
act  of  September  8,  1778,  establishing  a  Court  of  Admiralty.  On 
September  14,  1779,  the  Council  directed  the  chief  justice  to  ob 
tain  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  prisoners  in  question  and  submit 
them,  together  with  his  advice.  What  that  official  reported  does 
not  appear ;  but  it  was  of  such  a  tenor  that  the  Council  ordered  the 
commissary  of  prisoners  not  to  exchange  his  privateering  charges 
without  the  further  order  of  the  board.  On  October  1st  the  As 
sembly  passed  a  further  supplement  to  the  test  laws  because,  as  the 
supplement  stated,  many  persons  had  omitted  to  subscribe  to  them 
probably  "from  disaffection  to  our  late  glorious  revolution."  In 
order,  however,  to  afford  all  an  opportunity  to  subscribe,  the  time 
for  taking  the  test  was  extended  to  December  1st  for  the  inhabi 
tants  of  Cumberland,  Bedford,  Northumberland,  and  Westmore 
land  counties,  thirty-five  days  being  allowed  for  the  inhabitants  of 
Lancaster,  York,  Berks,  and  Northampton  counties,  and  twenty- 
days  only  for  the  non-jurors  of  the  City  and  County  of  Philadel 
phia,  as  also  for  those  of  Bucks  and  Chester  counties.  Persons 
refusing  to  take  advantage  of  these  arrangements  were  declared  to 
be  forever  incapable  of  electing  or  being  elected  to  office,  serving 
on  juries,  or  keeping  schools,  and  to  be  forever  deprived  of  the 
privileges  and  benefits  of  citizenship.  This  measure  was  followed 
within  a  few  days  by  one  authorizing  the  Council  and  the  justices 
of  the  Supreme  Court  to  order  the  arrest  of  suspects  and  to  in 
crease  the  fines  of  persons  neglecting  their  militia  duty.5 

The  enactment  of  such  laws  indicate  that  the  authorities  still 
had  many  Loyalists  to  deal  with.  The  popular  resentment  against 
this  class  of  inhabitants  had  vented  itself  upon  the  male  sex;  and 
with  but  few  exceptions  the  action  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Coun 
cil  and  the  other  bodies  that  were  entrusted  with  the  promotion 
of  the  cause  of  liberty  had  been  diected  against  members  of  the 
same  sex.  But  in  June,  1779,  the  grand  jury  had  made  a  present- 


0  Colon.  Records  of  Pa..  XII,  71,  74,  103,  112 ;  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  IX,  277-283,  404. 
407 ;  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  219. 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        73 

ment  to  the  effect  that  the  wives  of  British  emissaries  had  not  de 
parted  and  were  keeping  up  an  injurious  correspondence  with  the 
enemies  of  the  country,  supplying  them  with  intelligence  and 
propagating  the  most  poisonous  falsehoods.  This  action  appears 
to  have  produced  no  marked  effect  in  causing  the  wives  of  absent 
Loyalists  to  follow  their  husbands  into  exile,  so  far  as  official  rec 
ords  show.  During  the  entire  year  of  1779  the  Council  issued 
scarcely  more  than  a  score  of  passports  to  such  persons.  One  of 
these  was  granted  to  Mrs.  Jacob  Duche  and  her  children;  but  on 
July  1st  another  pass  was  issued  to  the  same  family  to  return  on 
account  of  Mrs.  Duche's  ill-health.  Under  date  of  February  4,  1780, 
an  entry  appears  in  the  minutes  of  the  Council  that  Elizabeth 
Fegan,  the  wife  of  an  attainted  traitor,  was  still  lingering  in  Phila 
delphia,  after  having  been  accorded  permission  to  go  to  New  York, 
and  that  if  she  should  be  found  within  the  State  ten  days  from 
date,  she  was  to  be  arrested  and  confined  in  the  common  jail.  The 
record  shows  that  a  few  passes  in  the  usual  form,  that  is,  on  con 
dition  that  the  applicant  should  not  return  or  must  obtain  the 
Council's  consent  before  doing  so,  were  granted  during  this  month. 
It  was  not  until  March  7th  of  this  year  that  the  Council  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  grand  jury  had  reached  nine  months  before, 
being  constrained  thereto  no  doubt  by  the  discovery  in  an  inter 
cepted  journal  that  Mrs.  Samuel  Shoemaker,  whose  husband  was 
with  the  enemy,  had  been  assisting  prisoners  and  other  persons 
inimical  to  the  American  cause  to  pass  secretly  to  New  York.  At 
the  same  time  the  power  to  pardon  persons  under  sentence  of  death 
for  treason  was  vested  by  legislative  act  in  the  Executive  Council, 
on  condition  that  such  persons  would  depart  to  foreign  lands  and 
not  return  to  the  United  States.  The  Council  now  decided  to  pub 
lish  notice  that  passports  would  be  granted  before  April  15th  to 
Loyalist  wives  to  go  within  the  British  lines  to  their  respective 
husbands,  and  that  their  neglect  of  proceeding  thither  would  ren 
der  it  necessary  to  take  further  measures  for  the  purpose.  Only 
two  women  seem  to  have  responded  to  this  action,  one  of  these  be 
ing  Mrs.  Shoemaker,  who  did  not  secure  her  pass  until  April  16th, 
and  had  the  courage  to  ask  to  be  allowed  to  return  within  a  year, 
but  was  subjected  to  the  condition  of  obtaining  the  Council's  con 
sent.  On  June  6th  the  Council  announced  that  public  notice  would 
be  given  to  the  wives  and  children  of  such  persons  as  had  joined  the 
enemy,  requiring  their  departure  from  the  State  within  ten  days, 


74  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

and  that  protection  would  then  be  withdrawn  from  any  remaining, 
who  would  become  liable  to  prosecution  as  enemies  of  the  State.  A 
second  clause  of  this  order  added  that  anyone  carrying  letters  to  or 
from  New  York  or  other  places  in  the  possession  of  the  British 
would  be  subject  to  legal  action,  unless  the  letters  had  been  in 
spected  and  properly  endorsed  by  a  member  of  the  Council,  or  of 
the  Continental  Board  of  War,  or  by  the  commissary  of  prisoners ; 
and  it  was  recommended  that  offenders  be  taken  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace  for  commitment  until  the  further  order  of  the  Council. 
On  June  13th  passports  were  issued  to  seven  women  under  the 
terms  of  the  new  order,  and  on  June  16th  to  ten  more.  The  ten 
days  specified  in  the  resolution  had  now  elapsed;  but  during  the 
next  thirty  days  the  Council  had  to  enforce  its  decree  by  directing 
that  several  wives,  who  had  failed  to  depart,  should  be  put  in  the 
workhouse,  until  they  should  give  security  to  leave  the  State  and 
not  return  again.  During  October  several  more  women  were  sent 
to  join  their  husbands,  including  Mrs.  Esther  Yeldall,  the  wife  of 
Dr.  Anthony  Yeldall,  who  was  required  to  take  her  five  children 
with  her  and  furnish  bond  in  the  sum  of  $20,000  not  to  return  to 
any  of  the  States  during  the  war.  Permission  was  granted  during 
the  same  month  to  William  Hamilton  to  sail  for  St.  Eustatia  and  to 
Thomas  Mendenhall  to  proceed  to  Ireland  by  way  of  New  York. 
On  December  18th  Joseph  Stansbury  and  his  family  were  offered 
the  privilege  of  going  within  the  British  lines.  Mr.  Stansbury  had 
been  included  in  the  proclamation  of  attainder  published  on  June 
15,  1778.  In  1780  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  Philadelphia 
on  the  charge  of  engaging  in  illicit  trade  with  the  enemy,  but  in 
December  was  allowed  to  remove  with  his  family  and  effects  to 
New  York,  on  condition  that  he  would  "use  his  utmost  endeavors" 
to  have  two  American  prisoners  on  Long  Island  returned.  On  De 
cember  21st  his  request  for  his  books  and  papers  was  granted  by 
the  Supreme  Executive  Council;  and  on  the  8th  of  the  following 
month  a  passport  was  issued  to  Mrs.  Stansbury,  her  six  children, 
and  her  maid  servant.  We  hear  nothing  more  of  this  exiled  family 
until  February  21,  1781,  when  they  were  together  in  New  York 
City  and  were  put  in  the  way  of  drawing  rations  from  the  British 
commissary  department.  From  May  1  to  the  end  of  June,  1782, 
Mr.  Stansbury  was  employed  in  the  secret  service.  In  June  of  the 
following  year  he  retired  with  his  family  to  Moorestown,  N.  J., 
where  he  had  hired  a  house,  but  was  at  once  arrested  under  a  war- 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        75 

rant  from  Governor  Livingston  and  ordered  to  return  to  New 
York.  Here  on  August  9th  he  was  supplied  with  a  letter  of  recom 
mendation  from  General  Sir  Guy  Carleton  to  Governor  John  Parr, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  about  to  sail  with  his  household  for  Nova 
Scotia.6 

During  1781  a  few  passports  were  granted  to  women  to  go  to 
New  York,  on  condition  of  not  returning  during  the  war,  and  one 
on  the  same  condition  to  Margaret  Maguire,  whose  destination  was 
Charlestown  (S.  C.?).  But  with  the  advent  of  the  next  year  a 
marked  change  in  the  character  of  the  passports  is  to  be  noted. 
Although  numbers  of  passports  continued  to  be  issued  during  the 
remainder  of  the  war,  a  large  proportion  of  them  name  other  des 
tinations  than  New  York,  and  even  those  which  name  that  me 
tropolis  provide  for  the  return  of  the  applicant.  This  is  not  in 
variably  true,  for  several  exceptions  occur  during  the  fall,  winter, 
and  spring  of  1782-83 ;  and  a  group  of  four  within  this  period  des 
ignate  Newburyport,  while  denying  the  right  to  return.  In  Febru 
ary,  1783,  one  applicant  is  permitted  and  another  refused  the 
privilege  of  going  to  Nova  Scotia ;  and  on  April  17th  the  Honorable 
John  Penn,  his  wife,  and  attendants  are  authorized  to  proceed  to 
New  York.  If  the  Council's  formula  "not  to  return"  or  "not  to  re 
turn  during  the  war"  be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  the  Royalist  at 
tachments  of  those  to  whom  it  was  applied,  over  ninety  such  were 
supplied  with  passports  during  the  period  of  eighteen  months  from 
the  beginning  of  September,  1778,  to  the  end  of  July,  1783.  Of 
these  ninety  or  more,  thirteen  were  men;  the  others  were  women 
with  a  few  children.  In  most  cases  the  destination  was  New  York ; 
but  four  passports  were  issued  for  Newburyport ;  two  for  Halifax, 
one  for  Nova  Scotia,  one  for  Charlestown,  one  for  St.  Eustatia,  one 
for  Ireland,  one  for  Germany,  and  two  for  Europe. 

Not  only  the  wives  of  Loyalists  who  had  joined  the  enemy 
proved  particularly  troublesome  during  the  early  months  of  1780 ; 
but  the  Quakers  also,  both  in  the  City  and  County  of  Philadelphia, 
proved  to  be  a  disturbing  element  by  declining  to  furnish  informa 
tion  in  regard  to  the  amount  of  their  property  for  the  purposes  of 
taxation,  although  such  concealment  rendered  them  liable  to  a  four 
fold  assessment.  Then,  too,  the  resident  Loyalists  were  so  active 


8  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,  43,  518,  571,  642,  649,  673,  758 ;  XII,  11,  21,  24,  29,  86,  44, 
61,  68,  69,  79,  81,  101,  120,  243,  253,  256,  257,  270,  271,  300,  352,  377,  passim;  XIII,  17,  21, 
30,  59,  passim;  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  II,  248;  III,  85;  IV,  216,  269; 
Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  253,  254. 


76  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

in  intrigues  of  various  kinds  that  the  principal  Continental  officers 
in  Philadelphia,  headed  by  General  Anthony  Wayne,  published  an 
address  on  April  6th  declaring  their  "fixed  and  unalterable  reso 
lution  to  curb  the  spirit  of  insolence  and  audacity,  manifested  by 
the  deluded  and  disaffected"  by  refusing  to  associate  or  communi 
cate  with  anyone  who  had  exhibited  "an  inimical  disposition,  or 
even  lukewarmness  to  the  independence  of  America,"  or  with  any 
one  who  might  give  countenance  to  such  persons,  "however  respect 
able  his  character  or  dignified  his  office."  They  said  further  that 
they  would  regard  any  military  officers  who  should  contravene  the 
object  of  their  declaration  as  a  proper  subject  for  contempt.  Among 
those  who  were  manifesting  their  inimical  disposition  at  this  time 
were  several  persons  taken  up  for  aiding  British  prisoners  and 
other  enemies  of  the  State  to  escape.  One  of  those  arrested  was  Dr. 
William  Cooper  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  concealed  a  Loyalist  for 
some  time  and  had  then  procured  him  a  doctor's  place  on  board  an 
armed  ship.  As  Dr.  Cooper  chose  to  depart  rather  than  give  security 
for  his  good  behavior  in  the  future,  he  was  granted  two  months  in 
which  to  prepare.  John  Kugler,  his  wife  Susanna,  and  Abraham 
Harvey,  who  were  examined  by  the  Council  on  the  charge  of  help 
ing  prisoners  and  others  to  flee  to  New  York,  Mrs.  Kugler  being 
also  charged  with  harboring  spies,  were  sentenced  to  jail.  The 
same  punishment  was  visited  upon  James  Scott  and  Henry  Lane, 
two  former  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  "recently  returned 
to  the  city.7 

With  so  much  active  Toryism  abroad  at  a  time  when  the  out 
look  for  the  American  cause  was  peculiarly  discouraging,  the  Su 
preme  Executive  Council  decided  on  June  6th  in  favor  of  discrim 
inating  between  the  friends  of  independence  and  the  non- jurors 
in  exacting  supplies  to  meet  the  pressing  needs  of  the  army. 
Three  days  later  the  Council  proclaimed  martial  law  in  Phila 
delphia  and  announced  the  establishment  of  an  Office  of  En 
quiry  to  be  conducted  by  commissioners  for  the  arrest  of  all  suspi 
cious  characters  and  to  take  such  other  measures  as  the  public 
safety  might  require.,  on  the  ground  that  the  admission  of  strangers 
into  the  city  without  examination  was  enabling  the  enemy  to  send  in 
spies  and  emissaries,  distribute  counterfeit  money,  and  employ 
other  means  to  defeat  the  public  welfare.  All  civil  and  military  of- 

7  Scharf  and  Westcott.  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  408,  410 ;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,  272,  301, 
807,  880,  839,  342. 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        77 

ficers  and  other  faithful  inhabitants  of  the  Commonwealth  were 
therefore  required  to  assist  the  Board  of  Enquiry  in  its  operations. 
Horses  belonging  to  Quakers  and  Loyalists  were  seized  for  the  use 
of  the  army ;  the  houses  of  persons  suspected  of  disloyalty  to  Amer 
ica  were  searched  for  arms  and,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  collec 
tion  of  provisions,  an  embargo  was  laid  on  all  outward-bound  ves 
sels,  except  those  in  the  service  of  France.  The  immediate  occasion 
of  these  rigorous  measures  is  to  be  found  in  a  sudden  invasion  of 
New  Jersey  by  the  British.8 

A  committee  of  Friends  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Assembly 
of  1780,  complaining  of  laws  detrimental  to  their  liberties  and  privi 
leges  and  explaining  that  they  were  restrained  by  divine  ordinances 
from  complying  with  "tests  and  declarations  to  either  party"  en 
gaged  in  actual  war.  The  memorial  also  stated  that  members  of  the 
society  had  suffered  abuse  and  that  some  of  them  had  been  subjected 
to  oppression  by  public  officials,  especially  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  militia  law.  The  committee  of  the  Assembly,  to  which  this  com 
munication  was  referred,  formulated  a  series  of  questions  designed 
to  call  forth  from  the  Quakers  an  expression  of  their  sentiments 
towards  the  State,  and  received  a  reply  thereto  which  the  commit 
tee  characterized  as  "an  evasion  of  the  questions  proposed."  As 
the  Assembly  paid  no  further  attention  to  the  matter,  the  Quakers 
soon  adopted  an  address  in  vindication  of  their  political  course.9 

The  Tories,  however,  were  not  treated  with  such  leniency  by 
the  Executive  Council,  which  admitted  to  surety,  imprisoned,  or 
sent  within  the  enemy's  lines  suspicious  persons;  sentenced  sev 
eral  to  be  hanged  who  were  charged  with  enlisting  in  the  British 
service,  and  was  responsible  for  the  execution  of  David  Dawson 
of  Chester  on  December  25th  for  visiting  Philadelphia  while  in 
Howe's  possession.  Phineas  Paxton,  an  inn-keeper  of  Bucks 
County,  who  was  tried  on  the  same  date  with  Dawson  (June  27th) 
for  aiding  in  the  escape  of  British  prisoners,  was  forbidden  to 
keep  a  tavern  any  longer,  required  to  furnish  a  bond  of  £30,000, 
or  more,  and  was  committed  to  prison  until  he  should  comply  with 
these  conditions.  The  next  two  cases,  which  arose  nearly  a  fort 
night  after  Paxton's,  gave  the  Council  the  opportunity  of  exercising 
its  power  of  pardon,  newly  bestowed  by  act  of  the  General  Assem- 


8  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,  272,  301,  307,  330,  339,  342,  383,  884 ;  Scharf  and  Westcott, 
Hist,  of  Phila.,   I,  410,   411. 

8  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  411. 


78  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

bly,  and  apparently  first  employed  in  behalf  of  Edward  Greswold 
("Grizzle")  and  John  Wilson,  two  youthful  deserters  from  Captain 
Jacob  James's  troop  of  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons,  who  had  re 
turned,  like  others  who  had  enlisted  under  Howe's  proclamation, 
surrendered  themselves,  and  received  sentence  of  death.  Later, 
however,  they  were  fully  restored  to  their  former  standing  as  ac 
ceptable  citizens  of  the  State. 

In  November  it  was  discovered  that  a  number  of  inhabitants 
of  Philadelphia,  together  with  certain  persons  in  New  Jersey  and 
New  York  City,  were  carrying  on  trade  with  refugees  in  the  latter 
place.  Lumber  was  shipped  in  vessels  sailing  from  Philadelphia 
with  two  sets  of  clearance  papers.  On  arriving  at  New  York  the 
lumber  was  sold,  and  the  goods  purchased  with  the  proceeds  were 
sent  to  Shrewsbury,  N.  J.,  and  then  were  secretly  conveyed  to  Phila 
delphia.  That  such  trade  had  been  going  on  for  some  time  ap 
pears  from  a  statement  published  in  the  New  Jersey  Gazette  of 
Trenton,  under  date  of  January  20,  1779.  This  statement  declared 
that  on  January  2d  a  certain  Joseph  Castle  had  been  apprehended 
at  Mansfield  on  his  way  to  the  enemy  in  New  York,  via  Shrewsbury, 
without  any  passport,  and  was  committed  to  jail  in  Burlington; 
that  Castle  had  a  number  of  letters  from  Tories  in  Philadelphia  to 
their  friends  in  New  York,  some  of  which  showed  that  a  constant 
correspondence  was  maintained  and  traffic  carried  on  between  re 
fugees  in  New  York  and  disaffected  persons  in  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania,  chiefly  by  way  of  Shrewsbury  where,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  considerable  number  of  Tories  resided.  The  statement 
closed  with  an  admonition  to  magistrates  and  others  to  examine 
suspicious  persons  traveling  to  and  from  Shrewsbury.  Notwith 
standing  this  public  warning,  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  did 
not  apprehend  some  of  the  participants  in  it  until  late  in  November, 
1780,  when  eleven  of  these  culprits  were  given  a  hearing.  A  few  of 
them  were  sent  to  New  Jersey  for  trial ;  several  more  were  released 
on  bail,  and  the  others  were  imprisoned.  Among  those  arrested 
were  Joseph  Stansbury,  who  was  allowed  to  go  to  New  York  with 
his  family,  as  we  have  already  seen;  Joshua  Bunting  of  Chester 
field,  N.  J.,  who  kept  the  stage-house  where  the  agents  of  the  traders 
stopped,  and  James  Steelman,  John  Shaw,  and  William  Black,  cap 
tains  of  vessels  engaged  in  the  trade.  The  discovery  of  this  long- 
continued  conspiracy  resulted  in  the  forming  of  a  "Whig  Asso 
ciation,"  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  all  intercourse  with  Loy- 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        79 

alists  and  suspected  persons,  and  many  military  officers  served  on 
the  executive  committee  of  the  new  organization.10 

Meantime,  considerable  damage  was  being  inflicted  on  the 
commerce  of  the  city  by  the  operations  of  Tory  privateers  in  Dela 
ware  Bay  and  River,  despite  the  efforts  to  prevent  it  by  sending 
out  several  pilot  boats,  a  Continental  packet,  and  one  of  the  State 
galleys.11 

Notwithstanding  the  Council's  unremitting  measures  in  re 
gard  to  returned  and  absent  Loyalists,  that  body  found  its  authority 
over  such  persons  jeopardized  by  petitions  and  resolutions  ad 
dressed  to  the  Assembly,  which  it  claimed  were  calculated  to  re 
scind  its  decisions.  It  therefore  sent  a  message  to  the  House, 
March  27,  1781,  in  which  it  denied  any  desire  on  its  part  to  re 
strict  the  liberty  and  liberality  of  the  Assembly  in  the  way  of  spe 
cial  legislation  to  annul  executive  proceedings,  but  ventured  to 
suggest  that  such  legislation  necessarily  tended  to  "lessen  the 
weight  of  the  Council,"  disturb  the  harmony  of  government,  and 
would  "eventually  injure  the  real  interests  of  the  State."  It  urged 
that  a  better  way  would  be  to  repeal  laws  openly  and  explicitly  if 
they  were  too  severe,  or  reduce  the  powers  of  the  Council  if  they 
were  too  extensive;  and  it  concluded  by  asking  for  a  conference 
with  the  House.  We  can  only  surmise  that  the  result  of  this  con 
ference  was  in  keeping  with  the  views  of  the  Supreme  Executive 
Council,  for  its  authority  does  not  seem  to  have  been  materially 
lessened.12 

In  November  of  this  year  a  plot  to  steal  away  the  secret  jour 
nals  and  other  papers  of  Congress  was  discovered.  The  execution  of 
this  plot,  which  had  been  concocted  by  Benedict  Arnold,  was  un 
dertaken  by  Lieutenant  James  Moody  of  the  first  battalion,  New 
Jersey  Volunteers,  one  of  the  most  daring  Loyalists  in  the  King's 
service,  together  with  his  brother,  John  Moody,  and  Lawrence 
Marr.  These  men  had  an  accomplice  in  Addison,  an  Englishman, 
who  was  an  assistant  to  the  secretary  of  Congress.  While  waiting 
concealed  in  a  house  on  the  Delaware,  Lieutenant  Moody  acci 
dentally  learned  that  his  ally  had  betrayed  the  plot ;  that  his  asso 
ciates  were  already  taken,  and  that  a  party  of  soldiers  had  crossed 
the  river  in  search  of  him.  Managing  to  escape  up  the  Delaware 


10  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,  401,  419  ;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  412,  413  ; 
N.  J.  Archives,  2d  Ser.,  Ill,  33,  34,  89,  94,  368. 

«  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  413. 
12  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,   675. 


80  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

in  a  small  boat,  he  succeeded  in  reaching  the  British  lines  after  a 
week's  time.  His  brother  was  hanged  on  the  Philadelphia  common 
before  the  end  of  the  month ;  but  Lawrence  Marr  was  respited  and 
afterwards  released.13 

The  arrest  of  the  Loyalists  engaged  in  the  illicit  traffic  with 
New  York  City,  which  was  effected  at  about  the  same  time  that 
John  Moody  was  executed,  did  not  suffice  to  put  an  end  to  the  in 
tercourse  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  That  intercourse 
continued,  indeed,  during  the  year  1782,  being  carried  on  by  means 
of  wagons  with  false  bottoms  and  sides,  in  which  800  pounds  of 
goods  could  be  stowed  away.  Articles  for  shipment  were  also 
placed  in  kegs,  which  were  then  hidden  in  barrels  of  cider  and  thus 
carried  to  their  destination.  By  a  law  passed  in  September  "  'for 
the  more  effectual  suppression  of  intercourse  and  commerce  with 
the  enemies  of  America'  British  goods  were  declared  contraband 
and  liable  to  forfeiture,  while  the  importer  was  punishable  with 
three  months'  imprisonment."14 

For  some  time  small  groups  of  Pennsylvania  Loyalists  had 
been  carrying  on  predatory  warfare  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
the  State.  These  bands  of  "robbers,"  which  were  well  mounted, 
committed  their  depredations  with  such  boldness  and  success  that 
both  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  and  the  Legislature  were 
moved  to  take  action  against  them.  On  July  17,  1782,  the  Council, 
having  received  information  that  Thomas  Bulla,  Stephen  Ander 
son,  and  John  Jackson,  three  inhabitants  of  Chester  County  who 
had  been  attainted,  were  writing  letters  to  various  citizens,  threat 
ening  to  burn  their  houses  and  effects,  issued  a  proclamation  of 
fering  a  reward  of  £50  in  specie  for  the  arrest  and  imprisonment 
of  Bulla  and  of  £20  each  for  the  incarceration  of  the  other  two. 
Some  months  later  Gideon  Vernon,  another  attainted  Loyalist,  re 
turned  to  Chester  County  and  was  harbored  by  John  Briggs,  who 
was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £50  and  suffer  imprisonment  for  a 
season.  On  June  3,  1783,  however,  the  Council  decided — on  peti 
tion  from  Briggs — to  remit  his  term  in  jail,  on  condition  that  he 
furnish  security  for  the  payment  of  his  fine,  in  addition  to  the  fees 
and  costs  of  the  prosecution  and  for  his  good  behavior  during  the 
next  three  years.  The  names  of  Vernon  and  Bulla,  together  with 


18  Narrative  of  James  Moody;   Sabine,   Loyalists  of  the  Am.   Rev.,   II,   48,   96,   97;   Laws 
of  Pa.,  II,  379;  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  419. 
i*  Ibid.,  424. 


SURVIVAL  OF  LOYALISM  AFTER  BRITISH  WITHDRAW        81 

those  of  the  notorious  Doane  brothers  of  Bucks  County  and  eleven 
others,  appear  in  a  proclamation  of  the  Council,  dated  September 
13,  1783,  which  quotes  a  special  act  of  the  Assembly  authorizing 
their  speedy  arrest  and  punishment  as  persons  who  have  been 
duly  attainted  with  complicity  in  these  crimes.  As  the  act  offered 
a  reward  of  £300  each  for  the  delivery  of  the  offenders  to  the  sher 
iff  of  any  county  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  also  a  reward  of  £50 
for  the  discovery  of  any  one  who  had  aided  or  comforted  them,  or 
had  received  booty  stolen  by  them  with  the  knowledge  that  it  had 
been  stolen,  the  Council  ordered  all  judges,  justices,  sheriffs,  and 
constables  to  make  diligent  search  for  the  offenders  and  their  abet 
tors.  This  order  and  the  liberal  rewards  offered  were  efficacious,  at 
least  in  so  far  as  the  Doanes  were  concerned ;  although  Israel  Doane 
had  already  been  captured  and  put  in  jail  in  the  previous  February. 
A  petition,  which  he  addressed  to  the  Council  for  release,  on  account 
of  the  destitute  condition  of  his  family  and  his  own  sufferings,  was 
dismissed.  In  September,  1783,  Joseph  Doane,  the  father  of  Israel 
and  his  brothers,  was  in  the  Bedford  County  jail.  In  October,  1784, 
Aaron  Doane  was  under  sentence  of  death  at  Philadelphia,  but 
was  pardoned  by  the  Council  in  the  following  March.  Abraham 
and  Mahlon,  two  other  brothers  who  were  mentioned  in  the  procla 
mation,  paid  the  full  penalty  for  their  depredations:  they  were 
hanged  in  Philadelphia.  Moses  Doane  was  shot  and  killed  by  his 
captor  after  a  desperate  encounter.  Joseph  Doane,  Jr.,  while  on 
one  of  his  raids,  was  severely  wounded  and  taken  prisoner,  but  es 
caped  from  jail  and  crossed  into  New  Jersey.  There  he  lived  under 
an  assumed  name  for  nearly  a  year,  without  giving  up  his  former 
employment.  At  length  he  fled  to  Canada.  Sabine  tells  us  that  "sev 
eral  years  after  the  peace,  he  returned  to  Pennsylvania — 'a  poor, 
degraded,  broken-down,  old  man' — to  claim  a  legacy  of  about  £40, 
which  he  was  allowed  to  recover,  and  to  depart."15 

When  the  contents  of  the  preliminary  treaty  of  peace  became 
known  at  the  end  of  the  revolutionary  struggle,  the  more  violent 
Whigs  were  much  dissatisfied  with  the  provisions  according  Loyal 
ists  the  right  to  go  to  any  part  of  the  United  States  and  remain 
there  for  twelve  months,  while  forbidding  their  persecution  or  the 
future  confiscation  of  their  property.  On  May  29,  1783,  the  militia 
gathered  at  the  State  House  and  adopted  resolutions  against  per- 


15  Colon.   Records  of  Pa.,   XIII,    333,   590,    687-690  ;   Sabine,   Loyalists   of  the  Am.    Rev.,    I, 
381-383. 


82  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

mission  being  granted  to  Tory  refugees  to  return,  or  remain  among 
Americans  who  had  been  faithful  to  their  country;  announcing 
the  militia's  determination  to  use  all  means  at  command  to  prevent 
them  from  doing  so,  and  expressing  a  readiness  to  join  with  others 
in  sending  instructions  to  their  representatives  in  the  Assembly. 
The  resolutions  further  declared  that  persons  '  'harbor ing  or  enter 
taining  those  enemies  of  the  country  ought  to  feel  the  highest  dis 
pleasure  of  the  citizens,"  and  called  for  a  town  meeting  to  decide 
on  the  method  of  instructing  representatives  and  such  other  meas 
ures  as  might  appear  necessary,  and  for  the  appointment  of  a  com 
mittee  to  carry  the  purpose  of  the  assemblage  into  effect. 

Accordingly,  a  general  meeting  of  citizens  was  held  at  the 
State  House,  June  14th,  and  resolutions  of  the  same  general  tenor 
as  those  adopted  by  the  earlier  meeting  were  agreed  to,  but  with 
an  added  clause  pledging  those  present  to  use  every  method  "to 
expel  with  infamy"  those  refugees  who  had  presumed,  or  should 
in  future  presume,  to  return,  while  authorizing  a  committee  to  pub 
lish  their  names  in  the  city  papers  and  see  to  the  execution  of  the 
resolutions.  The  meeting  asserted  its  decided  conviction  that  "the 
restoration  of  estates  forfeited  by  law"  was  "incompatible  with  the 
peace,  the  safety,  and  the  dignity  of  the  commonwealth."  After 
the  committee  had  served  peremptory  notice  on  a  few  returned 
Loyalists,  earnest  remonstrances  were  made  against  its  action, 
which  was  criticized  as  being  repugnant  to  the  treaty  of  peace ;  but 
no  attention  was  paid  to  them  by  the  committee.16 

In  truth,  more  compassion  was  shown  to  attainted  Loyalists 
by  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  than  was  manifested  to  these  un 
fortunate  refugees  by  a  committee  whose  only  powers  were  derived 
from  an  unauthorized  mass  meeting. 


16  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  427,  428. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  BY  THE 
SUPREME  EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL,  1780-1790 

As  we  have  already  noted,  attainted  Loyalists  were  first  par 
doned  by  the  Council  in  July,  1780.  The  clemency  exercised  in  be 
half  of  Frederick  Buzzard,  February  13,  1784,  was  of  lesser  degree, 
for  he  had  been  convicted  in  Chester  County  of  nothing  worse  than 
aiding  British  prisoners  to  escape,  and  had  been  fined  therefor.  A 
third  of  the  amount  imposed  having  been  already  paid  by  Mr.  Buz 
zard  or  his  friends,  the  Council  relented  on  appeal  and  remitted  the 
remainder.  During  the  next  five  years  the  names  of  eight  attainted 
persons  appear  in  the  minutes  of  the  Council  as  those  of  applicants 
for  the  mercy  and  forgiveness  of  that  body.  In  the  case  of  the  first 
two  of  these  persons  the  action  taken  was  to  suspend  the  attainder 
until  the  next  session  of  the  General  Assembly.  In  the  case  of  the 
next  five  petitioners,  full  personal  pardon  was  granted,  but  this 
does  not  appear  to  have  carried  with  it  the  restoration  of  confis 
cated  property  in  a  single  instance.  In  the  last  case  contained  in 
our  list  leave  to  withdraw  the  petition  was  granted,  the  Council 
being  averse  to  considering  the  applicant's  claim  for  a  pardon. 

Taking  up  these  cases  in  their  order,  we  shall  consider 
their  special  features.  The  first  petition  in  our  series  was 
one  signed  by  various  inhabitants  of  Philadelphia  in  behalf 
of  Matthias  Aspden,  a  former  merchant  of  the  city,  who  had 
abandoned  a  business  that  brought  him  a  profit  of  £2,000  annually, 
gone  to  New  York,  and  sailed  in  1776  for  Corunna,  Spain,  on  his 
way  to  London.  Nine  years  later  Mr.  Aspden  had  returned,  and 
his  friends  had  undertaken  to  secure  a  pardon  for  him,  although 
he  is  said  to  have  hastened  back  to  England  on  finding  that  his 
life  was  in  peril.  The  petition  in  his  behalf  was  first  read  in  Coun 
cil,  November  14,  1785;  but  it  was  not  acted  upon  until  January 
19th  of  the  following  year,  when  Mr.  Aspden  was  reprieved  until 
the  next  session  of  the  Assembly.  In  April,  1786,  this  latter  body 
seems  to  have  granted  him  a  full  pardon.  However,  he  did  not  re 
cover  his  house,  wharf,  and  warehouses  in  Philadelphia,  which  had 

83 


84  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

been  confiscated  by  the  State,  April  1,  1781,  and  which  were  given 
to  the  university.  Despite  his  pardon,  Mr.  Aspden  did  not  remain 
in  America;  in  1802  he  was  in  France;  in  1804  he  was  traveling 
in  Italy;  in  1815  he  was  at  New  York,  and  in  July,  1817,  he  left 
Philadelphia  for  England  by  way  of  Canada.  He  died  in  London, 
August  9,  1824,  leaving  a  will  which  Sabine  says  gave  rise  to  the 
most  extraordinary  suit  ever  instituted  under  the  confiscation 
acts  of  the  Revolution.  It  was  not  finally  decided  until  in  1848, 
when  his  American  heirs  secured  a  decree  in  the  United  States  Cir 
cuit  Court  that  gave  them  property  valued  at  more  than  $500,000. 
This  decree  was  sustained  by  the  Supreme  Court  against  the  ap 
peal  of  the  English  claimants.1  John  Potts  who,  like  Matthias 
Aspden,  was  granted  a  reprieve  until  the  Assembly  should  have  a 
chance  to  act  on  his  case,  was,  as  we  already  know,  one  of  Sir  Wil 
liam  Howe's  magistrates  of  the  police  at  Philadelphia,  having 
served  earlier  as  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  After  re 
tiring  to  New  York  he  had  been  attainted  in  1779,  and  at  the  peace 
he  probably  went  to  Nova  Scotia  as  a  refugee  settler.  His  appli 
cation  for  a  pardon  was  favorably  considered  by  the  Council  on 
May  26,  1786.2 

Of  the  group  of  five  Loyalists  whose  requests  were  fully  ac 
corded,  it  may  be  remarked  in  general  that  none  of  them  was  as 
prominent  or  influential  as  either  of  the  two  who  had  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Council  only  suspension  of  sentence.  Moreover, 
the  first  of  the  five,  Thomas  Gordon,  put  forward  the  claim  that  he 
was  under  lawful  age  at  the  time  of  his  attainder,  and  he  asked 
only  that  the  Council  would  institute  process  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State  to  determine  the  validity  of  its  sentence  in  view  of  the 
fact  alleged.  Gordon's  petition  was  finally  granted,  November  26, 
1787,  after  the  lapse  of  seven  and  a  half  months  from  the  time  of 
its  presentation.3  The  second  petitioner  in  this  group  was  Robert 
Cunard  of  Norristown,  Montgomery  County,  who,  like  hundreds  of 
his  fellow-Pennsylvanians,  had  joined  the  British  army  in  1777. 
His  application  was  read  and  concurred  in,  June  1,  1789.  While 
there  was  nothing  unusual  about  the  career  of  Mr.  Cunard,  he  left 
descendants  in  the  persons  of  his  grandsons,  the  offspring  of  his 
son  Abraham,  a  merchant  at  Halifax,  who  later  became  widely 


1  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XIV,  34,  578,  625  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  I,  186-190. 

2  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XV,  26  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,   199. 
8  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XV,  177,  338. 


THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  85 

known  as  the  Brothers  Cunard,  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Mail 
Steamship  Line.4  The  third  applicant  in  this  group  was  John  Wil 
son  of  Bucks  County,  who  submitted  reasons  in  his  petition  why  he 
should  be  granted  a  pardon  in  so  far  as  respected  his  person  only. 
On  hearing  this  document  read,  the  Council  voted  "that  the  said 
John  Wilson  be  and  he  is  hereby  pardoned/'5  A  similar  action  was 
taken,  February  6,  1790,  in  favor  of  the  fourth  petitioner  in  our 
list,  namely,  Arthur  Thomas  of  Philadelphia,  who  represented  that 
he  had  "behaved  himself  peaceably"  since  his  attainder  and  that 
he  was  desirous  of  returning  to  Pennsylvania.  The  fact  that  Mr. 
Thomas  was  recommended  to  the  mercy  of  the  Council  by  a  num 
ber  of  respectable  citizens  seems  to  have  carried  weight  with  the 
board,  whose  secretary  not  only  mentions  the  recommendation  in 
the  records,  but  also  notes  that  the  resolution  granting  pardon  was 
adopted  unanimously.  This  petitioner,  however,  did  not  remain  at 
Philadelphia  permanently.  In  May,  1786,  he  was  living  in  Wilming 
ton,  Del.6  The  last  member  of  this  group  was  John  Rankin,  who 
settled  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  in  the  Quaker  colony  at  Penn- 
field,  N.  B.,  the  lands  of  which  he  helped  to  select,  being  one  of  the 
three  agents  sent  from  New  York  City  by  an  association  of  Penn 
sylvania  Quakers  for  the  purpose.  The  vicissitudes  which  this  col 
ony  passed  through  in  1787  and  the  years  just  following  served 
to  disperse  many  of  the  settlers  at  Pennfield,  among  them  being 
John  Rankin,  whose  petition  must  have  expressed  a  deep  desire  of 
his  heart,  when  he  asked  to  be  restored  to  the  rights  of  citizenship 
in  Pennsylvania.  The  Council  acceded  to  his  prayer  on  March  9, 
1790.7 

Thus  far  the  Supreme  Executive  Council  had  not  failed  to  give 
a  favorable  answer  to  the  petitions  for  pardon  that  had  been  sub 
mitted  to  it  by  relenting  or  disappointed  Loyalists.  Finally,  how 
ever,  came  the  most  surprising  petition  of  all,  that  of  the  former 
arch  Tory  of  Pennsylvania,  Joseph  Galloway,  who,  after  his  re 
tirement  to  England,  had  stood  forth  as  the  irrepressible  cham 
pion  of  American  Loyalism  in  his  criticisms  of  the  campaigns  in 
the  Middle  Colonies,  in  his  elaborate  discussion  of  the  provisions 
relating  to  the  Loyalists  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  in  his  manifold 

4  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XVI,   107  ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  I,   346. 

6  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XVI,  115. 

8  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XVI,  273;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Ont.,    (1904),   Pt.   I,   618. 

7  Vide  post,  p.  102  ;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XVI,  297. 


86  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

services  as  agent  for  his  fellow-sufferers,  and  in  his  correspondence 
with  many  Loyalists  who  continued  in  America.  So  far  as  one  can 
judge  from  the  entry  in  the  Council's  minutes,  Mr.  Galloway's  pe 
tition,  which  was  presented  by  his  attorney,  Thomas  Clifford,  was 
terse  and  formal,  contenting  itself  with  "stating  the  attainder  of 
the  said  Galloway  of  high  treason,  and  praying  that  Council  would 
be  pleased  to  grant  him  a  pardon  of  the  said  offense."  It  was  read 
the  second  time  on  May  18,  1790,  "when  on  motion  of  the  Vice 
President  [George  Ross,  Esq.],  seconded  by  Mr.  [Richard]  Will 
ing,  it  was  Resolved,  That  Mr.  Clifford  have  leave  to  withdraw  the 
said  petition."  Technically,  then,  Mr.  Galloway's  application  was 
not  refused:  it  was  withdrawn,  and  its  author  remained  in  Eng 
land  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  1803.8 

It  was  probably  sometime  after  this  action  that  a  proposal  was 
offered  in  Council  to  bestow  a  general  pardon  upon  such  as  still 
rested  under  the  State's  proscription.  But  by  a  vote  of  Decem 
ber  3,  1790,  the  "further  consideration"  of  this  motion  was  post 
poned  until  the  7th  of  the  same  month,  and  when  that  date  ar 
rived  the  consideration  of  the  motion  was  again  postponed.  It  is 
more  than  possible  that  the  recollection  of  Mr.  Galloway's  petition 
was  enough  to  dampen  any  generous  impulses  the  Council  may 
have  felt  towards  granting  amnesty  to  the  mass  of  offenders  who 
were  as  yet  unpardoned,  and  that  it  still  preferred  to  deal  indi 
vidually  with  such  cases  as  might  arise  from  time  to  time. 

Notwithstanding  the  popular  resentment  against  Loyalists  re 
turning  to  or  remaining  in  Philadelphia  after  the  peace,  many  did 
nevertheless  remain,  and  some  did  return,  besides  those  who  took 
the  precaution  to  provide  themselves  with  pardons.  Of  those  who 
continued  to  reside  in  Philadelphia  Edward  Shippen,  LL.  D.,  is  a 
notable  instance.  As  we  have  already  seen,  his  daughter  was  ex 
pelled  from  the  State  as  the  wife  of  Benedict  Arnold,  after  the 
latter's  treason.  Mr.  Shippen,  however,  was  not  only  permitted  to 
remain,  but  was  elevated  to  the  chief  justiceship  in  1799.  This  ap 
pointment  was  held  by  him  until  his  death  in  1806.  Another  of  those 
who  found  it  possible  to  see  the  Revolution  through  without  with 
drawing  from  the  city  was  the  quaint  teacher  of  Greek  and  Latin 
in  the  Friends'  Academy,  Robert  Proud.  He  is  described  as  having 


8  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XVI,  363;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Vol.  XXVI    (Dec.  1902), 
438  ;   Sabine,   Loyalists  of  the  4m.  Rev.,   I,   454-456. 


THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  87 

worn  a  curled  gray  wig  and  a  half-cocked  hat  above  a  Roman  nose 
and  a  "most  impending  brow ;"  and  his  letters  to  his  brother  show 
him  to  have  possessed  "high  Tory  feelings."  He  is  best  remembered 
by  his  History  of  Pennsylvania,  a  work  in  two  volumes,  which  was 
published  in  1797  and  1798.  He  died  in  1813,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
five  years.  Christopher  Sauer,  Jr.,  the  Tory  printer  of  Germantown 
who  left  with  the  British  at  the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia,  came 
back  later  and  died  near  the  city  in  August,  1784.  John  Parrock, 
who  had  formerly  been  a  resident  of  the  Quaker  City,  returned  from 
New  York  when  the  British  troops  and  their  thousands  of  Tory 
adherents  left  there  in  1783 ;  and  although  he  bore  the  stigma  of 
attainder  and  his  property  had  been  confiscated,  he  remained  until 
March,  1786,  when  he  proceeded  to  Halifax.  The  fact  that  Chief 
Justice  Benjamin  Chew  was  sent  into  temporary  exile  for  refusing 
to  sign  a  parole  in  1777  did  not  prevent  his  entering  the  State  again 
after  passing  through  that  disagreeable  experience,  nor  did  it  pre 
vent  his  being  appointed  president  of  the  High  Court  of  Errors  and 
Appeals  in  1790.  He  continued  to  serve  in  this  capacity  until  the 
tribunal  over  which  he  presided  was  abolished  in  1806,  which  was 
only  four  years  before  his  death.  Governor  John  Penn,  who  was  Mr. 
Chew's  associate  in  exile,  was  supplied  with  passports  to  New  York 
for  Mrs.  Penn,  himself,  and  their  attendants  on  April  17,  1783. 
Whether  they  were  on  their  way  to  England  at  this  time  does  not 
appear,  although  it  is  probable  that  they  were.  If  so,  Mr.  Penn 
returned  later ;  for  he  died  in  Bucks  County  in  1795.  The  Reverend 
Jacob  Duche,  who  spent  the  years  of  his  banishment  in  England, 
recrossed  the  ocean  in  1790  and  appeared  in  Philadelphia  shattered 
in  health,  although  he  survived  until  1798. 9 

During  1784  the  General  Assembly  was  more  or  less  occupied 
in  considering  proposals  to  abolish  the  "test  laws."  A  petition  for 
their  repeal  was  presented  in  March,  but  was  laid  on  the  table  by 
a  vote  of  thirty-seven  to  twenty-seven.  A  resolution  introduced  in 
September  stated  that  numbers  of  young  men,  who  had  arrived  at 
eighteen  years  of  age  since  the  passage  of  the  laws,  had  not  taken 
the  oaths  of  allegiance,  and  were  thus  being  deprived  of  their  citi 
zenship.  It  called  for  a  law  to  remedy  this  condition  of  affairs,  and 
was  supported  by  a  petition  from  non- jurors  for  admission  to 
political  and  civic  rights.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  that  fol- 


9  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  612,  202,  626,  163 ;  I,  207,  265 ;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of 
Archives,  Ont.    (1904),  Pt.  I,  669;  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XIII.   561. 


88  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

lowed  a  resolution  was  offered  in  favor  of  denying  the  privilege 
of  holding  salaried  office  to  citizens  who  had  voluntarily  joined 
the  British  army,  or  been  convicted  of  aiding  or  abetting  the  King. 
This  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  forty-six  to  four.  On  Sep 
tember  25th  a  new  proposal  came  up  for  passage.  This  was  that 
the  test  laws  be  so  amended  as  to  entitle  all  white  male  inhabitants 
who  had  not  subscribed,  to  take  the  oath  under  the  act  of  June  13, 
1777,  and  thus  become  free  citizens,  but  that  no  person  should  be 
eligible  to  office  until  he  had  also  taken  the  oath  prescribed  in  the 
act  of  December  5,  1778.  This  measure  was  carried  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-nine  yeas  to  twenty-two  nays.  Three  days  later  the  speaker 
cast  the  deciding  vote  in  favor  of  a  motion  to  take  up  a  bill  entitled 
"A  further  Supplement  to  the  Test  Laws/'  and  nineteen  members 
left  the  Assembly,  which  was  thus  deprived  of  its  quorum.  The 
seceders  justified  their  conduct  by  declaring  in  an  address  to  the 
public  that  improper  methods  had  been  employed  to  force  the  bill 
through  and  insisting  that  those  who  had  not  participated  in  the 
toils  and  sufferings  of  the  Revolution  should  not  share  in  its  ben 
efits.  The  speaker  of  the  Assembly  and  other  advocates  of  the  re 
vision  of  the  test  acts  urged  in  reply  that  legislation  for  the  relief 
of  non- jurors  was  necessary,  both  in  order  to  enfranchise 
those  who  had  been  too  young  to  subscribe  to  the  test  act  of  1779 
and  the  older  men  who  had  been  unoffending  neutrals  during  the 
war  and  had  paid  their  full  proportion  of  its  expense.  They  esti 
mated  that  nearly  one-half  of  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania  had 
been  deprived  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  by  the  law  of  1779,  and 
added  that  there  could  be  no  danger  of  any  abuse  by  extending  the 
law  since,  under  its  provisions,  no  person  who  had  joined  the  British 
army  or  had  been  convicted  of  aiding  and  abetting  the  King  was 
eligible  to  office. 

This  question  became  one  of  the  issues  in  the  election, 
which  was  held  in  October,  and  the  voters  in  the  City  and 
County  of  Philadelphia,  as  probably  also  in  other  parts  of  the 
State,  chose  candidates  for  the  Assembly  who  were  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  to  the  non- jurors.  In  Decem 
ber  General  Anthony  Wayne  led  in  the  struggle  to  amend  the  test 
laws,  adducing  as  his  chief  argument  that  they  were  depriving  of 
representation  many  inhabitants  who  were,  nevertheless,  subject 
to  taxation,  but  his  amendment  was  postponed;  and  a  subsequent 
motion  to  instruct  a  committee  to  report  a  bill  revising  the  test 


THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  89 

laws  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  eleven  ayes  to  forty-seven  nays.  Similar 
efforts  during  1785  also  ended  in  failure,  although,  according  to 
a  local  historian,  the  law  of  1779  operated  with  such  severity  in 
certain  districts  of  the  State  that  "the  number  of  free  men  who 
were  entitled  to  all  privileges  of  citizenship  was  not  sufficient  to 
administer  the  local  government."10 

Despite  this  serious  condition  of  affairs,  a  new  test  act  was 
passed,  March  4,  1786,  because — in  the  words  of  the  act  itself — 
"many  of  the  inhabitants"  had  failed  to  subscribe  to  one  or  another 
of  the  oaths  contained  in  the  earlier  acts  within  the  times  specified, 
thereby  depriving  themselves  of  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  and 
also  because  it  was  thought  that  not  a  few  of  the  non- jurors  would 
now  be  willing  to  testify  to  their  allegiance,  since  independence 
was  an  established  fact.  It  was  therefore  enacted  that  non- jurors 
might  take  a  new  test  before  a  justice  of  the  peace  of  the  district 
in  which  they  lived.  The  subscribers  had  to  swear  or  affirm  that  they 
renounced  all  allegiance  to  King  George  III.,  his  heirs  and  succes 
sors,  that  they  would  bear  true  faith  to  Pennsylvania  as  a  free 
State,  and  that  they  had  never  voluntarily  joined  or  assisted  the 
King,  his  generals,  fleets  or  armies,  or  their  adherents.  Another 
section  of  the  law  declared  that  no  benefit  from  its  provisions  should 
extend  to  any  person  attainted  of  high  treason,  nor  to  any  one  who 
had  "joined,  assisted,  or  countenanced  the  savages  in  their  depre 
dations."  Obviously,  this  last  clause  was  aimed  at  that  body  of 
Pennsylvanians  who  had  fled  during  the  war  to  Fort  Niagara  and 
Detroit  from  the  Susquehanna  and  upper  Delaware  valleys  and 
from  Pittsburgh,  respectively,  and  had  thereafter  cooperated  with 
the  Indians  in  raids  against  the  frontiers.  But  the  new  law, 
although  it  was  enacted  three  years  after  the  end  of  the  Revolution, 
failed  likewise  to  show  any  leniency  to  the  much  larger  number  of 
Loyalists  who,  under  the  stress  of  circumstances,  including  per 
secutions,  had  sought  safety  within  the  enemy's  lines,  not  to  speak 
of  those  who  had  enlisted  in  the  royal  service.  It  should  be  noted 
that  Robert  Morris  had  sought  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  the  law 
by  offering  two  motions,  one  to  strike  out  certain  words  describing 
the  new  oath  as  one  of  "abjuration,"  and  the  other  to  omit  the 
clause  in  regard  to  aid  rendered  to  the  King,  or  his  generals,  fleets, 
and  armies ;  but  both  of  these  motions  were  lost.  The  law,  there 
fore,  as  passed,  left  no  loophole  by  which  unrelenting  Loyalists, 


1°  Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.,  I,  435-436,   439,   440. 


90  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

whether  still  within  the  State  or  desiring  to  return  to  it,  might 
become  citizens.11 

The  test  law  of  March  4,  1786,  remained  in  force  a  little  over 
a  year,  when  it  was  at  length  amended,  March  29,  1787,  about  in 
conformity  with  the  ideas  of  Robert  Morris  by  the  substitution  of 
an  oath  that  was  doubtless  far  less  objectionable  to  the  Loyalists. 
The  explanation  offered  for  this  action  was  that  the  abjuration  of 
the  King  was  no  longer  effectual,  since  he  had  formally  renounced 
the  allegiance  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  that  many 
useful  citizens  were  disqualified  by  their  scruples  against  taking 
the  test  as  it  stood,  and  that  it  was  impolitic  to  deprive  the  com 
munity  of  their  allegiance.  Henceforth,  therefore,  the  subscriber 
would  only  be  required  to  swear  to  his  allegiance  to  Pennsylvania 
as  an  independent  State  and  to  abstain  from  doing  anything  injur 
ious  to  the  freedom  thereof.  Those  consenting  to  subscribe  to  this 
simple  oath  were  declared  free  citizens.12 

It  was  not,  however,  until  March  13,  1789,  that  the  Assembly 
reached  the  point  where  it  was  prepared  to  annul  the  entire  series 
of  test  acts,  including  even  that  mentioned  in  the  preceding  para 
graph.  All  these  laws  were  now  declared  to  be  repealed  and  all 
non- jurors  to  be  restored  to  citizenship.13 

That  the  animosities  between  Whigs  and  Tories  were  still 
capable  of  revival  was  shown  later  in  the  same  year  in  connection 
with  the  opposition  arising  between  factions  in  two  Scotch  Presby 
terian  congregations  of  Philadelphia  over  the  question  whether 
the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Pennsylvania  should  remain  subject 
to  the  Synod  of  Edinburgh.  One  of  these  factions  besought  the 
Assembly  for  a  law  annulling  this  relationship  in  so  far  as  it  con 
cerned  the  holding  of  the  local  church  property.  The  other  or  Tory 
faction  was  opposed  to  such  a  measure.  Nevertheless,  a  law  was 
enacted  in  September,  which  canceled  the  declaration  of  trust  be 
tween  the  local  presbytery  and  the  parent  synod  to  the  extent  of 
releasing  the  former  from  subjection  to  a  foreign  jurisdiction. 
As  the  opposing  faction  comprised  men  of  influence  in 
Philadelphia,  it  had  been  able  to  delay  the  passage  of  the  law  for 
several  months ;  and  even  after  the  measure  had  been  enacted  by  a 
proportionate  vote  of  three  to  one,  this  faction  attempted  in  Novem- 


11  Statutes  at  Large  of  Pa.,  XII,  178-181. 

12  Ibid.,  473-476. 

13  Ibid.,  XIII,  222-224. 


THE  PARDON  OF  ATTAINTED  LOYALISTS  91 

ber  to  induce  the  Legislature  to  repeal  the  act,  although  without 
success.  While  the  question  at  issue  was  strictly  sectarian  in 
character,  its  political  implications  aroused  general  interest  and  dis 
cussion  in  the  city.14 


Scharf  and  Westcott,  Hist,  of  PhUa.,  I,  442. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SALE  OF  FORFEITED  ESTATES 

Since  the  close  of  October,  1777,  the  estates  of  those  who  had 
gone  within  the  British  lines  had  been  subject  to  confiscation  by 
the  commissioners  of  the  various  counties  appointed '"for  the  pur 
pose,  and  some  estates  had  been  seized.  A  register  of  these  was 
kept  by  the  secretary  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  who  was 
at  length  ordered  by  that  body,  April  12,  1779,  to  give  notice  that 
the  realties  of  thirty-seven  persons  who  were  named  and  of  others 
not  named  would  be  "speedily  sold  by  public  auction  or  vendue." 
Of  those  whose  names  were  given,  fourteen  had  been  citizens 
of  Philadelphia,  including  Joseph  Galloway,  Andrew  Allen,  William 
Allen,  Jr.,  Jacob  Duche,  Samuel  Shoemaker,  and  John  Young, 
gentleman ;  six  had  been  inhabitants  of  the  County  of  Philadelphia, 
including  John  Potts  of  Pottsgrove,  Christopher  Sauer,  a  printer  of 
Germantown,  and  Henry  Hugh  Ferguson,  Esq.,  of  Graeme  Park, 
late  commissary  of  prisoners  for  General  Howe;  three  of  Bucks 
and  Lancaster  counties,  respectively ;  four  of  Chester  County ;  two 
of  York  County;  one  of  Northampton  County;  two  of  Trenton, 
N.  J.,  namely,  Peter  Campbell,  gentleman,  and  Isaac  Allen,  attor 
ney  at  law,  and  Andrew  Elliott,  Esq.,  of  New  York  City.1 

During  August  and  September,  1779,  the  Council  found  it 
necessary  to  postpone  certain  sales  until  after  the  next  session  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  in  order  that  particular  claims  or 
liens  upon  the  properties  in  question,  or  certain  petitions  relating 
thereto,  might  be  passed  upon.  The  first  deed  was  issued  under 
date  of  August  5th  of  the  year  just  named.  Early  in  the  following 
March  the  Council  adopted  a  resolution  that  the  agents  for  confis 
cated  estates  proceed  to  the  sale  of  all  estates  held  by  attainted 
persons  by  less  than  fee  simple  title,  whether  through  right  of 
marriage  or  otherwise,  since  such  estates  were  proving  burdensome 
to  the  State.  Eight  days  later  (i.  e.,  on  March  18th,)  the  Council 
appointed  a  standing  committee  from  among  its  own  members  to 
fix  the  exact  times  of  sales  and  of  payment  previous  to  the  signing 


Ante,  pp.  16,  92  ;  Colon,  Records  of  Pa.,  XI,  745. 

92 


THE  SALE  OF  FORFEITED  ESTATES  93 

of  any  deed,  because  purchasers  had  been  taking  advantage  of  the 
depreciation  of  money  by  neglecting  to  comply  with  the  conditions 
of  sale,  namely,  to  pay  one-fourth  of  the  purchase  money  in  ten 
days,  and  the  remainder  in  one  month  from  the  time  of  the  sale 
"to  the  great  injury  of  the  State,  and  the  embarrassment  of  the 
sales."2 

During  the  nine  months  since  sales  of  the  confiscated  estates 
had  begun,  they  had  not  been  numerous :  from  August  5  to  Novem 
ber  29,  1779,  inclusive,  there  had  been  but  ten  sales,  three  being 
of  properties  in  Philadelphia,  four  in  the  county  of  the  same  name, 
one  in  the  County  of  Chester,  and  two  in  the  County  of  Northamp 
ton.  Results  during  the  first  four  months  of  1780  were  but  little 
better,  there  being  only  twelve  sales  during  this  interval,  namely, 
two  of  estates  in  Philadelphia,  seven  in  the  County  of  Philadel 
phia,  and  one  each  in  the  counties  of  Chester,  Bucks,  and  Lan 
caster.  The  Council  was  not  satisfied  with  this  showing,  especially 
in  the  two  Philadelphia  districts,  where  it  looked  as  though  cer 
tain  marketable  properties  were  being  held  back.  On  May  8,  1780, 
this  dissatisfaction  manifested  itself  in  the  form  of  instructions 
to  the  agents  for  the  City  and  County  of  Philadelphia  to  proceed 
to  the  sale  of  all  forfeited  estates  within  their  respective  districts, 
giving  due  notice  thereof  according  to  law.  Four  days  thereafter 
this  order  was  extended  to  all  the  counties,  any  former  order  of 
the  Council  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  Sales  then  continued 
without  official  interruption  until  November  llth,  when  they  were 
suspended  by  action  of  the  Council  until  further  notice.  However, 
deeds  were  again  being  issued  to  purchasers  at  the  end  of  another 
fortnight.  On  February  21,  1781,  all  agents  were  requested  to  ren 
der  a  full  return  of  all  forfeited  estates  within  their  several  coun 
ties,  the  names  of  attainted  persons,  their  real  property,  the  names 
of  purchasers,  and  the  prices  at  which  sales  had  been  made.  Eight 
and  a  half  months  later  a  supplementary  report  was  called  for  con 
cerning  all  forfeited  estates  remaining  unsold  and  the  interest  held 
therein,  whether  in  fee  simple  or  otherwise,  by  the  persons  who 
had  forfeited  them.  The  only  return  recorded  in  the  minutes  of  the 
Council  under  this  request  appears  to  have  been  that  of  Robert 
Smith,  agent  for  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  who  reported  but  three 
properties  in  his  district.  Sales  were  still  in  progress  as  late  as 
December,  1790,  up  to  which  time  properties  of  seventy-five  per- 


2  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII,   73,   76,  77,  80,   82,   103,   273,  281. 


94  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

sons  had  been  disposed  of,  and  136  or  more  deeds  had  been  issued. 
The  names  of  the  attainted  owners  appearing  most  frequently  in 
the  records  of  sales  listed  in  the  Council's  minutes  are  those 
of  Andrew  Allen,  Joseph  Galloway,  Samuel  Shoemake,  Christopher 
Sauer,  Alexander  Bartram,  John  Parrock,  and  John  Rankin.3 

A  number  of  the  confiscated  estates,  however,  are  not  listed 
in  the  records  of  sales,  for  they  were  appropriated,  as  we  have  al 
ready  seen,  to  serve  as  sources  of  endowment  for  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  Two  properties  were  similarly  appropriated  to 
be  used  as  residences  of  State  officials:  thus,  the  house  and  lots  of 
Joseph  Galloway  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Sixth  and  Market 
streets  were  taken  over  by  act  of  March  18,  1779,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  president  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  while  the  large 
mansion  of  the  Reverend  Jacob  Duche  at  the  northeast  corner  of 
Third  and  Pine  streets  became  the  domicile  of  Chief  Justice  Mc- 
Kean.  Later  the  property  of  Mr.  Galloway  ceased  to  be  occupied 
and  fell  rapidly  into  a  state  of  decay.  By  act  of  April  6,  1786, 
therefore,  the  Legislature  ordered  the  Executive  Council  to  adver 
tise  it  for  sale.4 

In  this  connection  certain  cases  of  confiscation  may  be  men 
tioned  on  account  of  their  exceptional  character.  Proceedings 
against  the  estate  of  Raymond  Keen,  who  presented  himself  be 
fore  the  chief  justice  within  the  time  specified  and  was  discharged 
from  prosecution,  were  declared  null  and  void  on  his  petition  to 
the  Assembly.  The  special  act  relating  to  Keen's  case  restored  to 
him  such  of  his  lands  and  tenements,  rights,  and  credits  as  had 
not  been  sold  by  the  Commissioners  for  the  Sale  of  Forfeited  Es 
tates.  The  estate  of  Henry  Hugh  Ferguson  was  transferred  by 
legislative  authorization  of  April  2,  1781,  to  his  wife,  Elizabeth 
Ferguson.  A  preliminary  statement  is  needed  to  make  clear  the 
case  of  Thomas  Gordon.  Gordon  was  a  minor  in  1778,  when  he 
was  placed  by  his  mother  on  board  a  British  vessel  in  the  port  of 
Philadelphia,  against  his  own  inclination.  As  he  was  still  absent 
from  the  country  on  August  5,  1779,  by  which  time  he  should  have 
presented  himself  for  trial  under  a  proclamation  of  attainder,  his 
estate  was  confiscated.  Later  he  returned  to  Philadelphia  and  ap 
plied  to  the  Assembly  for  the  restoration  of  his  property,  and  his 


»  Colon.  Records  of  Pa.,  XII.  341,  347,  539,  634 ;  XIII,  106,  141  ;  XIV,  56,  657,  665 ;  XV,  4, 
14,   43,  185,   193,  230,  468,   648;  XVI,  283,  299,  309,   320,   387,   390,  422. 

4  Laws    of    Pa.,    II,    204 ;    236 ;    Scharf    and    Westcott,     Hist,    of    Phila.,    I,    396,    n.    3. 


THE  SALE  OF  FORFEITED  ESTATES  95 

petition  was  granted  by  act  of  March  29,  1788.  It  was  afterwards 
discovered,  however,  that  the  commissioners  had  disposed  of  his 
estate;  and  on  September  27,  1791,  the  Assembly  directed  the 
comptroller  general  to  give  Gordon  a  certificate  for  the  money  re 
ceived  by  the  State  on  account  of  the  sale  of  his  property,  including 
interest  at  the  rate  of  six  percent  from  the  date  of  sale.5 


6  Laws  of  Pa.,  II,  216,  217,  287 ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  I,  597  ;  Statutes  at 
Large  of  Pa.,  XIII,   67,  68;   XIV,   140,   141. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  EMIGRATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  LOYALISTS 

I.    FLIGHTS  TO  ENGLAND 

The  first  Loyalists  so  far  as  known  to  leave  Philadelphia  for 
England  were  Richard  Penn  and  Judge  Samuel  Curwen,  both  of 
whom  took  their  departure  in  1775.  The  latter  remained  in  the 
mother  country  until  the  end  of  July,  1784,  when  he  sailed  for 
Boston,  Mass.,  where  he  arrived  on  the  25th  of  the  following  Sep 
tember.  He  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  his  native  land.  Mr. 
Penn  had  been  governor  of  Pennsylvania  from  1771  to  1773,  and 
had  then  served  as  a  member  of  the  Council  and  as  a  naval  officer 
of  the  Colony  under  his  brother,  Governor  John  Penn ;  but  on  re 
turning  to  England,  he  was  entrusted  with  the  second  petition 
of  Congress  to  the  King.  He  died  in  Britain  in  1811.  It  was  re 
ported  that  the  Reverend  Jacob  Duche  sailed  from  Philadelphia  in 
December,  1777.  As  he  had  acted  for  three  months  as  chaplain  to 
the  first  Continental  Congress,  he  seems  to  have  felt  the  need  of 
conciliating  his  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  England.  In  the  spring 
of  1780  he  was  followed  across  the  water  by  his  wife  and  children, 
who  sailed  from  New  York.  Mr.  Duche  returned  to  Philadelphia 
in  1790,  after  an  exile  of  twelve  years.  He  died  eight  years  later. 
The  fugitive  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  John  Wentworth,  stopped 
at  the  Quaker  City  early  in  1778  on  his  way  to  London,  where  he 
arrived — according  to  Governor  Hutchinson's  Diary — on  March 
13th,  after  a  passage  of  twenty-four  days.  A  week  later  Mr.  Hut- 
chinson  records  that  he  received  a  call  from  his  fellow-exile  who, 
we  may  add,  had  been  granted  an  annual  allowance  of  £500  twelve 
months  before  by  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury.  When  General  Howe 
left  Philadelphia  on  his  homeward  voyage  about  the  middle  of 
May,  1778,  it  was  stated  in  one  of  the  newspapers  that  he  was 
accompanied  by  some  of  the  refugees.  This  was  probably  true.  At 
any  rate,  there  were  a  few  Pennsylvanians  in  London  in  July,  1779, 
at  which  time  they  signed  an  address  to  the  King.  Among  them 
were  Thomas  Bank,  Peter  Biggs,  Charles  Eddy  of  Philadelphia, 
Jabez  Maud  Fisher,  William  Harris,  and  John  Johnson.  Joseph 

96 


FLIGHTS  TO  ENGLAND  97 

Galloway  sailed  from  New  York  for  England  with  his  only  daugh 
ter  in  October,  1778,  from  which  time  he  was  paid,  like  Governor 
Wentworth,  £500  per  annum  from  the  Treasury.1  In  London  he 
told  Governor  Hutchinson,  whose  acquaintance  he  made  early  in 
the  following  December,  that  all  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey 
would  have  returned  to  their  allegiance  if  the  British  army  had 
not  moved  from  Philadelphia,  that  they  would  still  do  so  under  a 
proper  prosecution  of  the  war,  the  past  conduct  of  which  he  sweep- 
ingly  condemned,  and  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Middle 
Colonies  were  tired  of  the  contest.  On  another  occasion  he  men 
tioned  to  Hutchinson  his  having  applied  to  General  Howe,  as  soon 
as  he  had  heard  that  Philadelphia  was  to  be  evacuated,  to  learn 
what  was  to  become  of  the  magistrates  of  the  city,  and  said  that 
Howe  had  advised  them  to  make  terms  with  General  Washington 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  but  that  Clinton  had  assured  them  that  Amer 
ica  would  be  vanquished  and  that  their  salaries  should  be  continued 
to  them.  Galloway  sought  to  convince  the  British  authorities  that 
less  than  one-fifth  of  his  fellow-countrymen  favored  the  Revolu 
tion,  which  had  been  strengthened  by  disarming  and  intimidating 
the  Loyalists,  that  under  adequate  protection  and  assistance  most 
of  the  people  would  openly  support  the  royal  government,  and  that 
more  efficient  measures  would  soon  reduce  America.  In  June,  1779, 
the  House  of  Commons  instituted  an  investigation  into  the  Ameri 
can  war,  Mr.  Galloway  serving  as  one  of  the  most  important  wit 
nesses.  His  testimony  was  so  damaging  and  dealt  so  severely  with 
the  operations  of  the  commanding  officers  in  America  that  the  in 
vestigation  was  dropped.  But  Mr.  Galloway  continued  the  agita 
tion  through  pamphlets  and  letters,  the  object  of  which  was  to 
convince  the  English  people  and  government  that  the  subjugation 
of  America  was  not  only  feasible,  but  was  also  necessary  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  British  power  in  the  world.  When  peace  was 
made,  another  pamphlet  was  published  by  the  distinguished  refu 
gee  from  Philadelphia,  in  which  he  examined  unsparingly  that 
clause  in  the  treaty  which  related  to  the  Loyalists.  As  agent  for 
this  class  of  war  sufferers,  he  rendered  valuable  service,  his  daugh 
ter  declaring  that  "for  twenty  years  his  morning  room  was  often 


1  Curwen's  Journal  and  Letters,  414,  415 ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  164 ; 
I,  390  ;  Fa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  II,  68-73  ;  Diary  and  Letters  of  Thos.  Hutchinson,  II,  192, 
194;  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  I,  94;  N.  J.  Arch.,  2d  Ser.,  II,  220; 
Sabine,  Loyalists  II,  164,  350,  388;  I.  454;  2d  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Arch.,  Ont.,  (1904),  II,  1169 


98  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

crowded,  and  seldom  empty  of  Americans  who  received  from  him 
his  best  services  in  their  own  affairs."  Mr.  Galloway  died  at  Wat 
ford,  Herts,  England,  August  29,  1803,  in  his  seventy-first  year.2 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  something  of  the  arrival  of  the 
several  thousands  of  refugees  from  Philadelphia  at  New  York,  and 
what  public  provision  was  made  for  them  in  a  city  to  which  large 
numbers  of  such  people  had  been  resorting  since  the  summer  of 
1776,  when  the  British  took  possession  of  Staten  and  Long  islands 
and  of  the  neighboring  metropolis.  That  special  accommodations 
were  necessary  appears  from  the  statement  of  David  Mathews, 
the  mayor  of  New  York,  who  reported,  August  25,  1783,  that  after 
the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia  and  the  second  great  fire  in  New 
York  he  was  directed  by  General  Clinton  to  proceed  according  to 
earlier  orders  for  the  purpose  of  providing  for  the  distressed  ref  u- 
geees,  namely,  "to  grant,  without  fee  or  reward,  permission  to  erect 
temporary  habitations  on  the  vacant  lots  of  persons  residing  with 
out  the  lines,"  Mr.  Mathews  adding  that  "the  lots  were  held  by  the 
erectors  of  the  tenements  only  during  pleasure."3 

Among  those  Pennsylvanians  who,  like  Galloway,  withdrew 
to  England  from  New  York  were  some  who,  together  with  many  of 
their  fellow-countrymen  from  other  States,  waited  until  the  evacua 
tion  of  the  metropolis  was  near  at  hand  before  doing  so.  A  few 
among  these  were,  on  petition  to  the  Treasury  Board  in  London, 
granted  financial  support  in  substantial  amounts.  Thus,  Samuel 
Shoemaker,  Daniel  Coxe,  and  John  Potts,  the  former  magistrates 
of  police  at  Philadelphia,  were  given  £200  a  year  each  a  little  more 
than  a  year  after  their  arrival  in  New  York;  and  Arodi  Thayer, 
who  had  been  tide  surveyor  at  Philadelphia,  had  his  salary  con 
tinued  at  the  rate  of  £80  per  annum.  Inasmuch  as  the  commander 
in  chief  was  constantly  being  petitioned  by  Loyalist  families  in  the 
city  for  relief  in  one  form  or  another,  especially  from  the  spring 
of  1779  on  to  the  fall  of  1783,  he  constituted  a  committee  or  board 
consisting  of  Mr.  Shoemaker,  Colonel  Beverley  Robinson  of  New 
Jersey,  and  Robert  Alexander  of  Maryland;  and  on  October  2, 
1782,  he  ordered  "that  all  memorials  cognizable  by  the  Board  which 
assembles  at  Mr.  Shoemaker's  may  be  sent  there  and  proceeded  on 
without  a  reference  from  Head  Quarters."  It  was  added  that  the 


2  Diary  and   Letters   of   Thomas   Hutchinson,    II,   226,    259 ;    Pa.   Mag.   of  Hist,   and   Biog., 
XXVI,  438,  439. 

*  Rep.  on  Am.  Mas.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  IV,  308. 


FLIGHTS  TO  ENGLAND  99 

people  were  to  be  sent  there  with  their  memorials.  At  the  end  of 
this  year  the  quarterly  allowances  from  September  30th  which  the 
Board  recommended  for  various  refugees  totaled  £1,075,  or  £1,410 
New  York  currency.  Not  only  did  Mr.  Shoemaker  serve  as  a  mem 
ber  of  this  board  of  relief,  but  he  also  interceded  with  the  British 
admiral  in  behalf  of  Whig  prisoners  and  was  successful  in  having 
numbers  of  them  liberated  and  sent  home.  At  length,  in  August, 
1783,  he  sailed  for  England  with  his  son  Edward.  Before  doing 
so,  however,  he  sent  word  to  the  vice-president  of  the  Council  of 
Pennsylvania,  that  he  would  cheerfully  surrender  the  papers  re 
lating  to  Philadelphia  that  were  in  his  possession  to  any  person 
authorized  to  receive  them.  While  in  London  he  was  often  con 
sulted  by  the  Commissioners  appointed  to  settle  the  claims  advanced 
by  Loyalists  for  the  losses  they  had  suffered.4  If  memorials  and 
letters  of  recommendation  from  the  commander  in  chief,  Sir  Guy 
Carleton,  are  an  indication,  not  a  few  Pennsylvanians  were  prepar 
ing  to  follow  Mr.  Shoemaker  to  London  in  the  autumn  of  1783. 
Among  these  persons  were  Messrs.  Potts  and  Coxe,  who 
received  letters  of  recommendation  to  Lord  North  bearing 
the  date  of  November  13th.  Another  Tory  who  had  been 
prominent  in  the  life  of  Philadelphia,  and  who  crossed  the  Atlantic 
after  the  peace,  was  James  Humphreys,  Jr.,  the  former  publisher 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Ledger.  However,  he  soon  proceeded  to  Shel- 
burne,  N.  S.,  but  returned  to  Philadelphia  in  1797,  where  he  en 
gaged  in  the  printing  and  book  publishing  business  until  his  death 
in  February,  1810.  His  fellow-townsman,  Isaac  Hunt,  who,  after 
being  carted  through  the  streets  of  the  Quaker  City  by  a  mob,  fled 
to  the  West  Indies  and  took  church  orders  there,  removed  later  to 
England  and  became  a  tutor  in  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Chandos. 
Mr.  Hunt  was  the  brother-in-law  of  the  artist,  Benjamin  West, 
and  the  father  of  James  Henry  Leigh  Hunt,  who  died  in  1859,  af 
ter  winning  renown  as  a  poet  and  miscellaneous  writer.  The  dis 
tinguished  Philadelphia  physician,  Phineas  Bond,  who  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  a  professor  in 
that  institution,  also  appears  to  have  retired  to  the  mother  country 
for  a  few  years;  but  in  1786  he  was  appointed  British  consul  for 
the  Middle  States.  After  some  hesitation  on  the  part  of  Congress, 


*  Rep.   on   Am.   Mss.   in   the   Roy.   Inst.   of   Gt.    Brit.,    II,    7 ;    III,    125,    169,    136,    148,    221, 
294,  422;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  301. 


100  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

he  was  received  in  his  official  capacity  and  continued  as  consul  for 
many  years.5 

II.    THE  MIGRATION  TO  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Aside  from  this  notable  group  of  Pennsylvanians  and  tem 
porary  residents  at  Philadelphia  who  went  to  England,  and  for  the 
most  part  remained  there,  a  considerable  number  settled  in  Nova 
Scotia.  Of  these,  many  families  found  homes  in  the  new  Loyalist 
city  of  Shelburne.  Sabine  in  his  Loyalists  of  the  American  Revo 
lution  gives  the  names  of  more  than  four  score  men  from  Penn 
sylvania,  most  of  whom  received  town  lots  there  by  grant  of  the 
government,  on  which  they  settled  with  their  families.  These 
grantees  included  some  successful  merchants,  chiefly  from  Phila 
delphia,  who  had  sustained  larger  or  smaller  financial  losses  as  the 
result  of  the  war :  as,  for  example,  Alexander  Bertram,  whose  for 
feiture  was  estimated  at  £5,000;  William  Briggs,  who  is  said  to 
have  suffered  to  the  extent  of  £3,000 ;  Henry  Guest,  whose  loss  was 
placed  at  £1,000,  and  others,  who  had  been  injured  in  lesser 
amounts.  Other  men  of  prominence  who  took  up  their  abodes  at 
Shelburne  were  James  Allen  of  Philadelphia,  with  his  family  of 
four  persons;  John  Boyd,  a  surgeon  from  the  Quaker  City,  and 
Benjamin  Booth,  one  of  its  merchants,  who  acted  as  secretary  of 
the  loyal  refugees  in  New  York  City  in  1778.  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Abraham  Van  Buskirk  with  three  other  officers  and  a  few  privates 
of  the  3d  battalion  of  the  New  Jersey  Volunteers  settled  in  Shel 
burne,  after  leaving  New  York  for  that  destination  at  the  end  of 
September,  1783.  Colonel  Van  Buskirk  was  soon  elected  mayor  of 
the  town.8  That  many  of  these  men  remained  in  affluent  circum 
stances,  despite  their  losses,  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  they  did 
not  leave  their  servants  behind  in  removing  to  Nova  Scotia.  Other 
places,  such  as  Halifax,  Annapolis,  Digby,  Rawdon,  Granville, 
Argyle,  and  Ship  Harbor,  appear  to  have  made  but  slight  gains 
in  population  from  Pennsylvania.  Among  those  who  located  in 
Halifax  was  Dr.  James  Boggs,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  med 
ical  staff  of  the  royal  army  during  the  Revolution,  and  was  for 
many  years  after  1783  surgeon  of  the  forces  at  the  Nova  Scotian 
capital.  John  Parrock  returned  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia 


6  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  IV,  454,  435,  436,  446,  470 ;  Sabine, 
Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  I,  554,  555,  535  ;  II,  472,  473,  482-485,  488,  passim. 

6  Rep.  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  IV,  375,  376 ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the 
Am.  Rev.,  I,  235  ;  II,  376  ;  II,  482,  483. 


THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  10V 

at  the  close  of  the  war,  but  in  March,  1786,  sailed  for  Halifax  with 
the  purpose  of  engaging  in  the  whaling  business.7 

Of  the  Tory  regiments  which  had  been  formed  in  or  near 
Philadelphia  parts  of  two  are  known  to  have  located  in  Nova 
Scotia,  namely,  the  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons  and  the  British 
Legion.  The  Legion  had  been  organized  under  General  Sir  Henry 
Clinton's  orders  by  Colonels  Lord  Cathcart  and  Bannister  Tarleton 
in  May  and  June,  1778;  and  in  the  winter  of  1781  it  appears  to 
have  absorbed  the  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons.  At  the  close  of 
April,  1782,  the  region  was  stationed  at  New  Utrecht  near  Brook 
lyn,  L.  I.  It  then  numbered  471  men,  of  whom  more  than  two- 
thirds  were  cavalry.  At  the  end  of  September,  1783,  about  eighty 
of  these  men  were  still  at  Brooklyn,  the  rest  having  embarked 
earlier  in  the  same  month  with  Major  George  Hanger  for  Halifax. 
Port  Mouton  in  Queen's  County,  N.  S.,  was  allotted  to  the  British 
Legion,  and  a  number  of  houses  were  at  once  erected  there ;  but  on 
the  discovery  in  the  following  spring  that  the  soil  was  barren  and 
stony,  the  settlers  began  preparations  for  removal.  They  were  in 
terrupted,  however,  by  an  accidental  fire,  which  destroyed  the  town 
and  reduced  them  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  The  authorities  at 
Halifax  promptly  despatched  a  vessel  laden  with  provisions,  thus 
averting  the  threatened  famine.  Most  of  the  members  of  this  dis 
banded  corps  removed  at  once  to  Chedabucto  Bay  at  the  eastern 
end  of  Nova  Scotia,  where  they  founded  the  town  of  Guysborough.8 

III.    THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK 

Although  Nova  Scotia  proper  must  have  received  at  the  evac 
uation  of  New  York  City  and  the  neighboring  islands  in 
the  fall  of  1783  at  least  800  former  residents  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  (which  was  created  in  1784) 
probably  gained  the  larger  share  of  these  people;  for  most,  if  not 
all,  of  the  Loyalist  regiments  which  contained  Pennsylvanians  were 
disbanded  and  given  crown  lands  in  New  Brunswick;  and  one 
large  association  of  Pennsylvania  Quakers  settled  together  at  Penn- 
field  on  the  north  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  Sabine,  who  had  the 
use  of  the  original  agreement  among  the  founders  of  Pennfield, 
asserts  that  it  was  formulated  in  1782.  Presumably,  it  was  under 


7  Sec.  Rep.,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.   (1904),  Pt.  I,  129,  195,  196,  517,  518,  669,  537,  564,  565, 
580. 

8  Rep.   on  Am.   Mss.  in  the  Roy.   Inst.   of   Gt.   Brit.,   IV,   349,    367,   375  ;   Haliburton,   Hist, 
of  Nova  Scotia,  II,   148,  149. 


102  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

this  agreement  that  a  meeting  of  Quakers  was  held  at  the  house  of 
Joshua  Knight,  36  Chatham  Street,  New  York  City,  on 
July  5,  1783,  in  order  to  decide  some  matters  of  importance  in  con 
nection  with  their  plans.  At  this  meeting  Samuel  Fairlamb,  John 
Rankin,  and  George  Brown  were  appointed  agents  to  locate  lands 
for  the  association  and  to  transact  any  business  incident  to  the  oc 
cupation  of  these  lands.  The  agents  soon  submitted  a  memorial  to 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  asking  the  privilege  of  seeking  lands  for  about 
sixty  families  on  the  River  St.  John,  or  elsewhere  in  that  region 
where  suitable  ungranted  lands  might  be  had;  and  Carleton  for 
warded  this  document  under  date  of  August  9th  to  Governor  John 
Parr  at  Halifax.  The  site  selected  was  at  Beaver  Harbor,  which 
lies  north  of  the  island  of  Grand  Manan;  and  by  October  the  new 
settlement  was  already  in  existence.  One  hundred  and  forty-nine 
lots  were  included  in  the  original  grant.  That  incoming  settlers 
rapidly  joined  the  colony  is  shown  by  the  statement  of  a  writer 
who,  shortly  after  its  foundation,  estimated  the  number  of  its  in 
habitants  at  800.  According  to  an  old  plan  in  the  British  Museum, 
there  were  "fifteen  streets  and  950  lots  in  the  town  proper,  with 
large  tracts  laid  out  in  farm  and  garden  lots  beyond."  The  County 
of  Charlotte,  in  which  Pennfield  was  situated,  was  established  June 
4,  1785;  and  the  Parish  of  Pennfield  was  erected  in  the  following 
year.  It  was  agreed  to  build  a  small  meeting  house,  July  7,  1786, 
on  ground  allotted  for  that  purpose.  We  are  told  that  a  fire  devas 
tated  the  town  in  1787,  which  must  have  greatly  increased  the 
distress  and  want  among  the  pioneers  at  Pennfield.  About  the  time 
of  the  fire,  however,  partial  relief  was  afforded  through  the  efforts 
of  two  Quaker  gentlemen  from  Philadelphia  who  had  visited 
Beaver  Harbor  a  twelvemonth  before,  and  on  their  return  home 
had  raised  a  subscription  with  which  they  bought  and  shipped  240 
barrels  of  flour  and  Indian  meal,  together  with  some  other  neces 
saries,  to  be  distributed  among  their  destitute  brethren.  Possibly 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  same  gentlemen  donations  were 
also  received  from  persons  in  England  during  the  winter  of  1788- 
89.  Whatever  recovery  Pennfield  made  from  its  first  con 
flagration  was  wiped  out  by  a  forest  fire  in  1790,  which  left  but  one 
dwelling  house  standing.  According  to  a  recent  writer,  "a  few  of 
the  inhabitants,  including  the  family  of  Joshua  Knight,  remained 
or  came  back  to  rebuild  their  dwellings  at  or  near  the  old  sites"; 
but  some  of  the  settlers  removed  to  Pennfield  Ridge,  others  to 


THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  103 

Mace's  Bay,  and  still  others  went  elsewhere.  In  June,  1803,  the 
population  of  the  Parish  of  Pennfield,  which  continued  to  consist 
of  Quakers  principally,  numbered  only  fifty-four.  This  little  com 
munity  occupied  a  good  tract  of  land  and  lived  chiefly  by  farming, 
although  it  sustained  two  saw-mills  and  had  recently  launched  two 
vessels  of  250  tons  burden  each.9 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  settling  of  the  enlisted  men  from 
Pennsylvania,  together  with  their  families,  in  New  Brunswick.  Af 
ter  the  cessation  of  hostilities  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  which  had 
been  the  scene  of  so  much  recruiting  among  the  Tory  residents  and 
refugees  during  the  British  occupation,  adopted  the  following  reso 
lution  :  "That  the  people  of  this  town  will  at  all  times,  as  they  have 
ever  done,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  oppose  every  enemy  to  the 
just  rights  and  liberties  of  mankind:  That  after  so  wicked  a  con 
spiracy  against  those  rights  and  liberties  by  certain  ingrates,  most 
of  them  natives  of  these  States,  and  who  have  been  refugees  and 
declared  traitors  to  their  country,  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  town 
that  they  ought  never  to  be  suffered  to  return,  but  be  excluded  from 
having  lot  or  portion  among  us.  And  the  Committee  of  Corre 
spondence  is  hereby  requested  to  write  to  the  several  towns  in  this 
Commonwealth  and  desire  them  to  come  into  the  same  or  similar 
resolves  if  they  shall  think  fit."  The  determination  by  the  victori 
ous  party  to  exclude  the  Loyalists  illustrated  by  the  above  resolu 
tion,  although  it  was  not  consistently  enforced  even  in  Philadelphia, 
was  prevalent  throughout  most  of  the  States,  and  was  recognized 
by  the  officers  of  the  Loyalist  regiments  at  New  York. 

These  officers  therefore  submitted  their  case  to  Sir  Guy  Carle- 
ton  in  a  letter  dated  March  14,  1783,  saying  that  whatever  stipula 
tions  might  be  made  at  the  peace  for  the  restoration  of  the  prop 
erty  of  the  Loyalists  and  for  their  return  home,  yet,  should  the 
American  States  be  severed  from  the  British  Empire,  it  would  be 
impossible  for  those  who  had  borne  the  King's  arms  to  re 
main  in  the  country.  They  maintained  that  the  personal  ani 
mosities  arising  from  civil  dissensions  had  been  so  heightened  by 
the  blood  shed  in  the  contest  that  the  opposing  parties  could  never 
be  reconciled.  They  spoke  of  the  personal  sacrifices  made  by  the 


•  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.,  I,  607  ;  Coll.  N.  B.  Hist.  Soc.,  No.  4,  73-80  ;  Rep.  on 
Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit.,  IV,  269,  270  ;  Winslow  Papers,  490  ;  Vroom,  Courier 
Series,  LXXII ;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  the  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  N.  B.,  144,  158. 

For  some  of  the  Pennsylvania  Quakers  who  settled  at  Pennfield,  see  Sabine's  Loyalists 
of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  514,  515,  525,  543,  550,  668,  569,  570,  579,  582,  583,  591,  592,  593,  597,  598. 


104  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Loyalists ;  of  the  anxiety  they  felt  for  the  future  of  their  wives  and 
children ;  of  the  fidelity  of  the  troops ;  and  of  the  great  number  of 
men  incapacitated  by  wounds,  many  of  them  with  families  who 
had  seen  better  days.  They  therefore  asked  for  grants  of  land 
in  some  of  the  royal  American  provinces  and  for  assistance  in 
forming  settlements,  in  order  that  they  and  their  children  might 
enjoy  the  boon  of  British  government.  They  also  requested  pen 
sions  for  such  non-commissioned  officers  and  men  as  had  been 
disabled  by  wounds  and  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  deceased 
officers  and  soldiers,  besides  permanent  rank  and  half -pay  for  the 
officers  on  the  reduction  of  their  regiments.  This  letter  was 
signed  by  the  commanders  of  fourteen  provincial  regiments ;  and  its 
requests  were  all  eventually  complied  with.10 

Indeed,  steps  were  taken  within  a  month  after  the  presenta 
tion  of  the  letter  looking  to  the  location  of  the  lands  asked  for  by 
the  officers,  when  several  of  the  petitioners  were  themselves  ap 
pointed  agents  to  go  to  Nova  Scotia  for  this  purpose.  These  agents 
were  Lieutenant  Colonels  Edward  Winslow,  Isaac  Allen,  Stephen 
DeLancey,  and  Major  Thomas  Barclay,  who  spent  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1783  in  exploring  the  River  St.  John  from  St.  Ann's 
Point  (Fredericton)  for  about  100  miles  upwards,  completing  their 
work  and  returning  before  the  end  of  July.  Winslow  then  secured 
authority  at  Halifax  to  lay  out  blocks  of  land  for  the  several  regi 
ments,  in  keeping  with  the  suggestions  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton  that 
the  allotments  should  be  by  corps  and  as  near  to  each  other  as  pos 
sible,  with  the  officers'  lands  interspersed  among  those  of  the  men 
so  that  the  settlers  might  be  united  and  ready  for  defense  in  case 
of  an  attack  on  the  colony.  These  blocks  were  afterwards  known 
as  "the  twelve  mile  tracts." 

In  August,  1783,  the  royal  instructions  relative  to  the  dis 
posal  of  the  troops  at  New  York  arrived ;  and  on  September  12th 
Carleton  ordered  Lieutenant  Colonel  Richard  Hewlett  of  the  3d  bat 
talion  of  DeLancey's  Brigade  to  assume  command  of  the  principal 
British  American  regiments,  which  had  already  embarked  nine 
days  before  at  Brooklyn,  having  been  encamped  during 
the  summer  at  Newtown,  L.  I.,  Hewlett  was  to  accompany  these 
troops,  already  considerably  depleted  through  losses  and  depar 
tures  with  and  without  formal  discharge,  to  the  River  St.  John, 
and  take  the  proper  measures  to  get  them  promptly  to  the  locations 


Raymond,   The  River  St.  John,  531-E 


THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  105 

assigned  for  their  settlement.  They  sailed  with  a  quantity  of  nec 
essary  stores  on  the  15th,  and  on  the  day  following,  Brigadier  Gen 
eral  H.  E.  Fox  and  his  military  secretary,  Edward  Winslow,  left 
for  St.  John  to  inspect  the  lands  up  the  river  and  arrange  for  the 
reception  of  the  regiments.  According  to  the  figures  of  the  com 
missary  general's  office  at  New  York,  about  4,000  persons  con 
nected  with  the  Loyalist  regiments  sailed  for  the  St.  John  up  to 
October  12th.  Not  less  than  5,000  had  embarked  for  the  same  des 
tination  earlier  in  the  same  year,  and  a  small  number  went  after 
the  departure  of  the  regiments,  which  arrived  on  September  27th. 
Three  days  later  they  disembarked  and  encamped  above  the  Falls; 
and  by  October  13th  they  were  disbanded  for  the  most  part,  and 
were  going  up  the  river  as  fast  as  the  scarcity  of  small  craft  on 
which  they  had  to  depend  for  conveyance  would  admit.  In  Decem 
ber  the  last  of  the  transports  from  New  York  arrived,  bringing  a 
supply  of  clothing  and  provisions,  in  addition  to  her  passengers, 
who  were  chiefly  women  and  children.11 

Soon  after  their  coming,  the  regiments  drew  for  their 
blocks  of  reserved  land,  which  were  shown  and  numbered  on  a 
plan  of  the  river  prepared  by  the  surveyor  general  of  Nova  Scotia ; 
but  as  yet  lots  had  not  been  surveyed  for  individual  settlers.  The 
tracts  drawn  by  several  of  the  regiments  were  too  remote  for  their 
liking;  the  season  was  already  far  advanced,  and  the  difficulty  of 
transport  was  great.  Hence,  many  of  the  disbanded  officers  and 
soldiers  preferred  to  spend  the  winter  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
and  not  a  few  of  them  drew  lots  in  the  Lower  Cove  district  of  Parr- 
town  (St.  John),  which  was  laid  out  for  the  refugees  in  December, 
1783.  Both  those  who  remained  here  and  those  who  pushed  on  up 
the  river,  except  a  few  of  the  latter  who  found  shelter  in  the  houses 
of  the  old  inhabitants,  were  compelled  to  endure  the  severities  of 
a  bitter  season  in  rude  huts  or  in  canvas  tents  thatched  with  spruce 
boughs  and  banked  with  snow.  Needless  to  say,  the  women  and 
children  suffered  most,  and  numbers  of  them  did  not  survive 
through  the  winter.  Among  the  Pennsylvanians,  who  were  grantees 
of  Parrtown,  were  Joseph  Canby,  John  Chubb  of  Philadelphia,  and 
Ross  Currie,  a  lieutenant  of  the  Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  who  re 
ceived  half  pay  and  became  one  of  the  first  practitioners  of  law  in 
the  new  community;  while  Robert  Stackhouse  of  Mount  Bethel, 


11  Siebert,   "The  Refugee  Loyalists  of  Connecticut"   in   Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  of  Canada,   1916, 
),   90;  Raymond,   The  River  St.  John,  536,  ff.;   Winslow  Papers,   131-133,   141. 


106  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Pa.,  was  a  grantee  of  Carleton,  another  Loyalist  town  which  sprang 
up  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  Abraham  Iredell,  who  had  lived 
near  Philadelphia  and  had  been  deputy  surveyor  in  Northampton 
and  Northumberland  counties,  Pa.,  settled  in  Parrtown,  where 
he  enjoyed  half  pay  as  a  lieutenant  of  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pio 
neers,  while  serving  as  deputy  surveyor  of  New  Brunswick.  Chris 
topher  Sauer,  3d.,  a  printer  of  Germantown,  began  the  publication 
of  the  Royal  Gazette  in  Parrtown  and  was  deputy  post  master  of  the 
Province  in  1792,  but  returned  to  the  States  seven  years  later  and 
died  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  July,  1799.12 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  principal  corps  in  which  Penn- 
sylvanians  enlisted  were  the  Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  the  Queen's 
Rangers,  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers,  the  New  Jersey  Vol 
unteers,  and  the  Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons.  Most  of  the  men 
of  these  organizations,  except  the  last  ones,  had  come  to  New 
Brunswick  with  Colonel  Hewlett ;  and  it  remains  for  us  to  note  the 
locations  taken  up  by  these  regiments  after  their  disbandment  and 
some  other  items  concerning  them.  The  1st  and  3d  battalions  of 
the  New  Jersey  Volunteers  were  among  the  Loyalist  corps  that 
preferred  to  remain  at  Parrtown  and  await  new  allotments  of 
land,  rather  than  ascend  the  river  to  the  distant  tracts  at  first  as 
signed  to  them.  Meantime,  many  of  the  men  of  the  3d  battalion 
boarded  schooners  with  their  families  for  the  winding  and  tedious 
voyage  of  nine  or  ten  days  to  St.  Ann's  Point.  As  six  inches  of 
snow  fell  on  November  2d,  or  about  three  weeks  after  their  ar 
rival,  not  a  few  were  caught  by  the  cold  weather  without  other 
shelter  than  their  tents.  Some,  to  be  sure,  had  managed  to  erect 
rude  huts  for  their  protection,  or  to  be  received  into  the  cabins 
of  earlier  settlers  along  the  river ;  but  others  took  their  tents  into 
the  depths  of  the  forest  and  there  set  them  up,  where  game  and 
firewood  abounded,  and  a  poor  kind  of  shelter  was  afforded  by  the 
thick  woods.  Nevertheless,  the  sufferings  of  these  exiles  were 
intense,  and  "the  loyal  Provincials'  Burial  Ground"  at  Salamanca 
was  frequented  by  mourners,  although  the  dead  were  not  infre 
quently  buried  near  the  snow-banked  tents  of  the  living.  When 
mild  weather  came  the  refugees  made  good  use  of  their  axes  and 
saws  in  felling  trees  for  the  erection  of  log  houses,  which  were 


12  Raymond,  "Early  Days  of  Woodstock"  in  Th0  Dispatch  of  Woodstock,  N.  B..  Dec.  5, 
1906 ;  See.  Rep.,  Archives  of  Ont.t  1904,  I,  198,  209,  237,  200 ;  Sabine,  Loyalists  of  the  Am. 
Rev.,  II.  823;  Jack.  St.  John:  Prize  Essay,  65. 


THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  107 

roofed  with  bark  and  lighted  by  small  glass  windows,  while  the 
fireplaces  and  chimneys  were  built  of  stone  cemented  with  yellow 
clay.  Among  the  houses  erected  at  this  time  was  that  of  Colonel 
Hewlett,  who  had  lost  his  stores,  tools,  baggage,  and  other  property 
to  the  value  of  £200  in  the  wreck  of  the  Martha,  one  of  the  trans 
ports  which  had  brought  the  Loyalist  regiments  to  New  Bruns 
wick.  Spring  came  none  too  soon  in  this  Northern  wilderness,  for 
the  people  at  Salamanca  were  already  running  short  of  provisions ; 
but  they  were  now  able  to  supply  themselves  with  pigeons,  part 
ridges,  moose,  fish,  and  edible  roots,  and  to  supplement  their  scanty 
supply  of  vegetable  food  by  the  discovery  of  large  patches  of  beans, 
which  had  been  planted  by  earlier  inhabitants  of  the  region,  prob 
ably  by  the  French.13  A  few  members  of  the  3d  battalion,  as 
already  noted  on  a  preceding  page,  went  from  New  York  to  Shel- 
burne,  N.  S.,  and  settled  there.14 

There  was  evidently  a  considerable  number  of  the  men  of  the 
3d  New  Jersey  Volunteers  still  at  Parrtown  as  late  as  January  17, 
1785,  when  Captain  Samuel  Ryerson  of  this  battalion  memorial 
ized  Governor  Thomas  Carleton  in  behalf  of  his  waiting  comrades 
for  lands  in  the  unoccupied  parts  of  Prince  William  Parish  and  of 
a  reserve  of  4,000  acres  below  the  Pokiok,  on  account  as  he  af 
firmed  of  the  distance  and  sterility  of  soil  of  Block  No.  12,  which 
they  had  originally  drawn.  However,  Ryerson's  petition  was  not 
then  complied  with,  although  both  the  memorialists  and  the  men 
of  the  1st  New  Jersey  Volunteers,  who  had  drawn  Block  No.  14, 
eventually  obtained  more  convenient  locations  in  the  counties  of 
York,  Sunbury,  and  Queens.  The  2d  New  Jersey  Volunteers  got 
settled  without  the  disheartening  delays  experienced  by  its  sister 
battalions,  for  it  fell  heir  to  one  of  the  desirable  tracts,  namely, 
Block  No.  2,  which  became  the  Parish  of  Kingsclear  in  1786,  and 
lies  only  about  twenty  miles  above  Fredericton.  It  contained 
38,450  acres  on  the  south  side  of  the  River  St.  John,  and  was 
granted  under  date  of  July  14,  1784,  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Isaac 
Allen  and  143  others  of  his  battalion.  Another  grant  of  14,050 
acres  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Kennebecasis  was  made  to  Colonel 
Allen  and  94  others  in  the  same  month  and  year.  In  1799  the  first 
mentioned  grant  to  Allen  and  his  men  was  canceled  in  chancery, 


« Raymond,    The  River  St.   John.   548-550. 

14  Rep.   on  the   Am.  Mss.   in   the  Roy.   Inst.  of  Gt.    Brit.,    IV,   375,   876 ;   Sabine,    Loyalists 
of  the  Am.  Rev.,  II,  376.     See  ont«  p.  101. 


108  THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

and  a  new  and  much  smaller  grant  at  Mactaquac  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  St.  John  was  assigned  him  and  others.15 

Two  days  after  the  Loyalist  troops  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the 
River  St.  John  a  small  party  of  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers 
came  ashore,  September  29,  1783,  one  day  in  advance  of  the  gen 
eral  disembarkation.  Presumably  these  men  proceeded  on  their  way 
up  to  St.  Ann's  Point  on  the  30th,  for  Colonel  Hewlett  wrote  to 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  at  the  time  to  that  effect.  They  must  therefore 
have  shared  in  the  hardships  of  the  following  winter.  The  rest  of 
the  Guides  and  Pioneers,  except  the  company  of  Black  Pioneers 
which  embarked  at  New  York  in  October,  1783,  for  Annapolis  in 
Nova  Scotia,  remained  at  Parrtown.  They  drew  Block  No.  3  on  the 
north  side  of  St.  John  River  above  the  Keswick,  the  mouth  of  which 
lay  within  their  district.  They  took  possession  of  their  block  in 
1784,  being  joined  later  by  other  Loyalists ;  but  it  appears  that  their 
grant  was  not  issued  until  November  7,  1787,  and  that  it  included 
what  were  known  as  Crock's  Point  and  Burgoyne's  Ferry.  Some 
of  the  men  of  this  corps  also  settled  in  Queensbury  Parish  along 
with  the  Queen's  Rangers.  Concerning  the  Black  Pioneers,  who 
had  been  attached  to  the  corps  of  the  Guides  and  Pioneers,  Sir  Guy 
Carleton's  instructions  to  Brigadier  General  H.  E.  Fox  were  that 
Governor  Parr  should  be  asked  to  grant  them  a  town  lot  and  about 
twenty  acres  in  the  vicinage,  in  case  they  settled  near  a  town  like 
Shelburne,  but  that  they  be  given  a  hundred  acres  in  case  they 
settled  in  the  country  as  farmers.16  The  obvious  intention  of  these 
instructions  was  that  each  member  of  the  company  should  receive 
the  amount  of  land  mentioned. 

On  April  15,  1783,  Major  R.  Armstrong,  in  the  absence  of 
Lieutenant  Colonel  John  Graves  Simcoe,  commander  of  the  Queen's 
Rangers,  who  had  returned  to  England,  authorized  Colonel  Edward 
Winslow  to  locate  lands  and  obtain  grants  for  the  575  persons  then 
connected  with  the  corps,  of  whom  305  were  privates,  sixty  women, 
and  seventy  children.  During  the  interval  of  five  months  that 
elapsed  before  the  Rangers  sailed  with  the  other  regiments  for 
New  Brunswick,  their  numerical  strength  seems  to  have  declined 


16  Raymond,  "Early  Days  of  Woodstock"  in  The  Dispatch  of  Woodstock,  N.  B.,  Dec.  5. 
19,  26,  1906 ;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  Historic  Sites  in  the  Province  of  N.  B.,  340 ;  Ganong, 
Monograph  of  the  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  N.  B.,  143,  341,  343. 

16  Raymond,  Winslow  Papers,  137 ;  Report  on  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst.  of  Gt.  Brit., 
IV,  380,  49,  60,  420;  Raymond,  "Early  Days  of  Woodstock"  in  The  Dispatch  of  Woodstock. 
N.  B.,  Dec.  6,  1906  ;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  the  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  N.  B.,  112,  162  ; 
Ganonjf,  Monograph  on  Historic  Sites  in  the  Province  of  N.  B.,  343. 


THE  MIGRATION  TO  NEW  BRUNSWICK  109 

markedly.  At  Parrtown  some  of  the  Rangers  drew  lots  and  thus 
became  grantees  of  the  place;  but  the  large  majority,  that  is,  more 
than  two-thirds  of  those  for  whom  Major  Armstrong  had  requested 
grants,  settled  together  on  Block  No.  5,  or  the  Parish  of  Queens- 
bury,  on  the  north  side  of  the  River  St.  John.  James  Brown  and 
sixty-six  other  Queen's  Rangers  received  a  grant  of  17,674  acres 
in  Queensbury  as  late  as  January  30,  1787.17 

The  corps  of  the  Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  which  numbered  171 
men  at  the  end  of  the  year  1778,  when  it  was  sent  with  other  troops 
to  Pensacola  to  assist  in  the  defense  of  West  Florida  against  the 
Spaniards,  had  no  more  than  sixty-eight  men  at  the  time  of  its  re 
turn  to  New  York  in  June,  1782.  Between  this  date  and  the  sum 
mer  of  1784  nearly  half  of  this  number  had  scattered,  for  Thomas 
Knox,  who  took  a  census  of  the  regiments  on  the  River  St.  John 
during  that  summer,  found  but  thirty-six  men,  fourteen  women, 
eight  children,  and  five  servants  belonging  to  the  corps  occupying 
their  lands  in  Block  No.  7,  across  the  river  from  Woodstock.  The 
presence  of  these  settlers  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  Parish  of 
Northampton  in  1786.  On  August  17th  of  the  following  year,  Wil 
liam  Burns  and  other  Pennsylvania  Loyalists  received  a  grant  of 
lands  within  the  original  block.  The  Parish  of  Southampton,  which 
was  also  settled  by  members  of  the  corps  and  their  descendants, 
was  not  created  until  1833.  But  not  all  of  the  men  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  Loyalists  who  came  to  New  Brunswick  settled  in  these 
parishes.  The  Reverend  Doctor  W.  0.  Raymond  tells  us  that  they 
were  to  be  found  at  various  places  within  the  Province.18 


17  Siebert,  "The  Refugee  Loyalists  of  Connecticut,"  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Can.,  1916,  86,  91 ; 
Rev.  W.  O.  Raymond's  Notes  on  Winslow's  Muster  Rolls  (unpublished)  ;  Raymond,  "Early 
Days  of  Woodstock"  in  The  Dispatch  of  Woodstock,  N.  B.,  Jan.  23,  1907  ;  Raymond,  The  River 
St.  John,  546  ;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  Historic  Sites  in  the  Province  of  N.  B.,  341. 

is  Siebert  "The  Loyalists  in  West  Florida  and  the  Natchez  District"  in  the  Miss.  Valley 
Hist.  Rev.,  II,  March,  1916,  473,  481 ;  Raymond,  Notes  on  Winslow's  Muster  Rolls  (unpublished)  ; 
Raymond,  Winslow  Papers,  215,  216;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  the  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in 
N.  B.,  155,  173 ;  Ganong,  Monograph  of  Historic  Sites  in  the  Province  of  N.  B.,  343 ;  Coll. 
N.  B.  Hist.  Soc.,  No.  5  (1904),  209. 


INDEX 


ACADEMY   in   Philadelphia,   60;   Friends,    86. 

Accessions  of  Loyalists  to  British  Army, 
38-42;  at  Detroit,  14,  15. 

Alexander,   Robert,   98. 

Admirality,   court  of,   72. 

Allegheny  Mountains,  12. 

Allegheny  River,   10. 

Allegiance  to  Pennsylvania,  56 ;  to  the  King 
sworn  by  New  Jersey  farmers,  29 ;  new  test 
of,  33  ;  failure  to  take  oath  of,  57  ;  time  ex 
tended  for  taking  oath  of,  59. 

Allen,  Andrew,  27,  30,  38,  57,  59,  61,  92,  94. 

Allen,  James,  27,  30,  31,  32,  85,  37,  40,  47,  48, 
100. 

Allen,  John,  27,  30,  37,  57. 

Allen,   Chief  Justice  William,   27. 

Allen,  Lt  Col.  William,  Jr.,  first  battalion, 
Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  30,  38,  40,  41,  57. 

Allen,  Lt.  Col.  Isaac,  of  the  second  battalion, 
New  Jersey  Volunteers  (Loyalist),  92,  104, 
107. 

Allentown    (Pa,),  27,  30,  40. 

American  Legion    (Loyalist),   70. 

Amnesty,  proclaimed  by  Gen.  Sir  William 
Howe,  29 ;  act  of,  71. 

Andre,  Maj.  John,  70. 

Andrews,  Nicholas,  16. 

Annapolis  (N.  S.),  100,  108. 

Annuities   for   Loyalists,   96,   97,    98. 

Anderson,  Stephen,  80. 

Armstrong,  Maj.,   109. 

Arnold,  Gen.  Benedict,  59,  68,  69 ;  organizes 
the  American  Legion  (Loyalist),  70;  plots 
to  steal  journals  of  Congress,  79. 

Argyle   (N.  S.),  100. 

Arrest  of  Dr.  John  Connolly  and  others,  11 ; 
of  170  Loyalists,  16 ;  of  Governor  John 
Penn,  29  ;  of  the  disaffected  ordered,  35  ;  of 
specified  persons,  36,  37  ;  of  proprietary  and 
Crown  officials,  37  ;  of  friends  of  rebellion, 
40  ;  of  militiamen,  71  ;  of  Joseph  Stansbury, 
74. 

Aspden,  Matthias,  58,  83,  84. 

Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  defines  treason, 
19 ;  gives  powers  to  Committee  of  Safety, 
23 ;  memorial  to,  24 ;  election  of  members 
of,  27 ;  supplanted,  28 ;  new,  29 ;  adjourns 
to  Lancaster,  39 ;  Loyalist  estates  at  dis 
position  of,  56 ;  further  security  provided 
for  by,  59 ;  endows  University,  61  ;  restores 
the  college,  62  ;  settles  claims  of  Penn  fam 
ily,  63 ;  purchases  Indian  tract,  66 ;  dis 
arms  non-jurors,  70 ;  passes  act  of  amnesty, 
71 ;  passes  supplement  to  test  laws,  72  ;  me 
morial  from  Quakers  to,  77 ;  petitions  to, 
79 ;  seeks  arrest  of  certain  Loyalists,  80 ; 
urged  to  oppose  return  of  refugees,  82 ; 


grants  a  pardon,  88 ;  considers  repeal  of 
test  laws,  87,  88 ;  repeals  test  acts,  90 ;  deal* 
with  Presbyterian  question,  90,  91 ;  deals 
with  Loyalist  property,  94,  95. 

Attainder  of  traitors,  57,  58,  85. 

Auger,  Frederick,   19. 

Austen,  William,   59. 

BALL,  Widow,   28. 

Bank,  Thomas,   96. 

Barclay,    Gilbert,    45. 

Barclay,  Maj.  Thomas,  of  the  Loyal  American 
Regiment,  104. 

Bartlett,  John,   59. 

Bartow,  Thomas,  27. 

Bartram,  Alexander,  94. 

Beaver   Harbor    (N.   B.),   102. 

Bedford  County,    (Pa.),  68,  72. 

Bender,   Philip,   19,   20. 

Bergen,  John,   23. 

Berks  County   (Pa.),   31,  72. 

Bartram,  Alexander,   100. 

Bethlehem    (Pa.),  32. 

Biddle,  John,   57,   59. 

Biles,   Samuel,   59. 

Black  Pioneers    (Loyalist),   108. 

Blane,  Thomas,  45. 

Board  of  Property,  63. 

Boggs,  Dr.  James,   100. 

Bond,  Phineas,  99. 

Boston  (Mass.),  11,  23,  24. 

Boyd,  John,  100. 

Brander,  John,   45. 

Brant,  Joseph,  Mohawk  chief,  20. 

Bray,  John,  58. 

Briggs,  John,  80. 

Briggs,  William,  100. 

Brtish  Army,  expected  attack  by  contingent 
of,  13 ;  Washington  and  his  army  go  to 
meet,  34 ;  landing  of,  35 ;  invasion  of 
Pennsylvania  by,  38-55  ;  accessions  to,  38-43  ; 
proclamations  by  commander  of,  40,  41 ; 
punishment  for  supplying  produce  to,  49 ; 
evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by,  53 ;  Loyal 
ists  proclaimed  as  joining  the,  58 ;  prosecu 
tion  of  sympathizers  with,  70 ;  House  of 
Commons  investigates  conduct  of,  97. 

British  Legion    (Loyalist),  101. 

Brown,  George,  102. 

Brown,  James,  109. 

Brown,  Lt.  Col.  Thomas,  18. 

Bucks  County  (Pa.),  26,  29,  41,  46,  48,  49, 
58,  72,  92,  93. 

Bucks  County  Volunteers    (American),   49. 

Bulla,   Thomas,   80. 

Burgoyne's  Ferry  (N.  B.),  108. 

Burlington  County   (N.  J.),  50. 


Ill 


112 


THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


Burns,   William,   109. 

Butler,  Henry,  15. 

Butler,    Col.    John,    of    Butler's    Rangers,    18, 

19,  20,  66. 

Butler,  Gen.   Richard,   66. 
Butler's   Rangers    (Loyalist),    14,    18,   20. 
Bunting,  Joshua,  78. 
Buzzard,  Frederick,   83. 

CALDWELL,   Capt.  William,   17,    18. 

Caldwell,    William,    44. 

Cambridge   (Mass.),  23. 

Cameron,  Allen,  11,  25. 

Campbell,  Capt.  Donald,  of  the  New  Jersey 
Volunteers,  42. 

Campbell,  Capt.  Duncan,  of  the  Royal  High 
land  Emigrants,  24. 

Campbell,  Peter,  92. 

Canby,  Joseph,  105. 

Carleton  (N.  B.),  106. 

Carleton,  Gen.  Sir  Guy,  75,  99,  102,  103,  104, 
108. 

Carlisle   (Pa.),  39. 

Carlisle,  Abraham,  44,   69. 

Carrigues,    Samuel,   Sr.,   59. 

Cassedy,   alias  Thompson,   William,   70. 

Castle,  Joseph,  78. 

Cathcart,  Col.  Lord,  101. 

Cayford,  Capt.  Richard,  of  the  New  Jersey 
Volunteers,  42. 

Censors,  Council  of,  61. 

Chalmers,  Lt.  Col.  James,  of  the  Maryland 
Loyalists,  41. 

Charitable  school   in   Philadelphia,   60. 

Charlotte  County   (N.  B.),  102. 

Charter  of  William  Penn   "construed,"  63,  64. 

Chedabucto  Bay    (N.   S.),   101. 

Chesapeake  Bay,  12,  35. 

Chester  County  (Pa).  38,  41,  44,  56,  58,  92,  93. 

Chew,  Benjamin,  chief  justice  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  37,  87. 

Chubb,  John,    105. 

Clifford,  Thomas,  86. 

Clifton,  Lt.  Col.  Alfred,  of  the  Roman  Cath 
olic  Volunteers,  41,  59. 

Clifton,   William,   59. 

Clinton,  Gen.  Sir  Henry,  takes  command  at 
Philadelphia,  51  ;  sends  Loyalist  families  to 
New  York,  53 ;  in  correspondence  with 
Benedict  Arnold,  69 ;  permits  refugees  to 
build  on  vacant  lots  in  New  York,  98 ;  or 
ders  formation  of  British  Legion,  101. 

Colchester  Township    (Ont.),   17. 

Golden,  Capt.  Thomas,  of  the  New  Jersey 
Volunteers,  42. 

College    in    Philadelphia,    57,   60. 

Colonies,   Southern,   10,   42. 

Committee  of  Correspondence  (Pa.),  23,  103. 
West  Augusta  County  (Va.),  10. 

Committee  of  Inspection,  Philadelphia,  23,  25, 
28. 


Committee  of  Safety,  Philadelphia,  11,  23,  24, 
25,  28  ;  other  committees,  24,  28. 

Committee  of  Secrecy,  Philadelphia,  28,  31. 

Confiscation  of  Loyalist  property,  66,  57,  84, 
92. 

Conn,   William,  23. 

Connolly,  Dr.  John,  Lt.  Col.  of  the  Loyal  For 
esters  and  in  the  Queen's  Rangers,  9-13,  15, 
16,  25. 

Constitutional  Convention   (Pa.),  28. 

Continental  army,  deserters  from,  43 ;  new 
levies  join,  32 ;  provisions  for,  56 ;  arms 
and  supplies  for,  57  ;  goes  to  meet  British, 
84  ;  fights  battle  of  Monmouth  Court  House, 
53. 

Continental  Board  of  War,  74. 

Continental  Congress,  commissioners  of,  11  ; 
mentioned,  12  ;  views  of  the  projects  of,  23  ; 
Tory  opinion  of  its  measures,  26 ;  action 
against  non-associators,  28 ;  complains  of 
disloyalty,  31 ;  petition  to,  32  ;  resolution  of, 
35 ;  recommends  arrests,  35 ;  adjourns  to 
Lancaster,  39 ;  Quakers  sent  to,  46 ;  per 
mits  to  be  issued  by,  59  ;  relinquishes  claim 
to  Indian  tract,  66 ;  directs  that  order  be 
maintained  in  Philadelphia,  68 ;  orders 
court-martial  of  Benedict  Arnold,  69 ;  Tory 
plot  to  steal  journals  of,  79 ;  Rev.  Jacob 
Duche  first  chaplain  of,  96. 

Coombs,  Rev.  Thomas,  36. 

Cooper,  Dr.   William,  76. 

Cornwallis,   Lord,  36. 

Coshocton    (O.),   14. 

Council  of  Censors,  61. 

Council  of  Safety  ( Pa.) ,  chosen,  29 ;  decides 
to  confine  suspects,  29 ;  James  Allen  before, 
30 ;  offenders  sentenced  by,  50 ;  its  powers 
terminated,  57  ;  deals  with  adherents  of 
Crown,  58. 

Court-martial,   68,   69. 

Cowperthwait,   Joseph,    sheriff,    23. 

Cox,  Isaac,  45. 

Coxe,  Daniel,  44,   98,  99. 

Craig,  James,  48. 

Crock's  Point    (N.  B.),   108. 

Crown  officials  arrested,  37. 

Cumberland   County   (Pa.),    13,   42,   49,   72. 

Cunard,   Robert,   84. 

Currency,    counterfeit,   50,    76. 

Currie,  Ross,   59,   105. 

Curwen,  Judge  Samuel,  23,  96. 

DAWSON,    David,    77. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  29,  63. 
DeLancey,   Lt.   Col.   Stephen,   of  the   first  bat 
talion,   New  Jersey  Volunteers,   104. 
Delaware,  31,  38. 
Delaware  River,  19,  20,  50,  89. 
DeNormandie,    Andrew,   59. 
Depue,  John,  of  Butler's  Rangers,  19,  20,  21. 
Deserters,  41. 


INDEX 


113 


Deshong,   Peter,   69. 

Destinations    of   Loyalists,    17,    24,    76,    81,    88, 

84,  87,  96-109. 

Detroit   (Mich),  10,   11,   14,  15,   17,  89. 
Detroit  River,   17. 
Digby   (N.   S.),   100. 
Disabilities,   32,   59,   61,   88,   89,   90. 
Doane,  Aaron,  81. 
Doane,   Abraham,  81. 
Doane,  Joseph,   Sr.  and  Jr.,  81. 
Doane,  Mahlon,  81. 
Doane,  Moses,  81. 
Dobson,  Isaac,  20. 
Drinker,  Henry,  35. 
Drinker,  Mrs.   Henry,   39,   52. 
Drummond,  Dr.  George,  37. 
Duche,  Rev.  Jacob,   57,  59,  87,   92,  96. 
Duche,  Mrs.  Jacob,  73. 
Dunkards,  24. 
Du  Simitiere,  Pierre,  54. 

Dunmore,   Lord,   governor  of  Virginia,   10,   11. 
Dunmore,     Fort     (Pa.),    see    Pitt,     Fort    and 

Pittsburgh. 
Dunmore's  War,  9,  15. 

EASTON    (Pa.),   39,   40. 

Eddy,  Charles,  96. 

Eve,  Oswald,  58. 

Election   of   April,    1776,   27. 

Elk  River  (W.  Va.),  11. 

Elliott,  Andrew,  92. 

Elliott,  Matthew,   14,  17. 

Embarkation  of  Loyalist  regiments  for  River 
St.  John,  105. 

Emigration  of  Loyalists,  12,  17,  21,  23,  37,  74, 
75,  83,  84,  85,  87,  96-109. 

England,  12,  13,  23,  24,  52,  96-100. 

Erie,  Fort   (N.  Y.),  21. 

Escape  of  Loyalists,  from  Pittsburgh,  14 ; 
from  the  Susquehanna  country,  20. 

Estates  of  refugees,  to  be  seized,  56 ;  confis 
cation  of,  57,  84;  sale  of,  92-95. 

Europe,   75. 

Evans,  Abel,  59. 

Ewing,  James,   12. 

Executions  of  Tories.  16,  68,  69,  77,  78,  81. 

FAIRLAMB,  Samuel,   102. 
Fegan,  Mrs.   Elizabeth,  73. 
Ferguson,   Henry  Hugh,   45,  92,   94. 
Ferree,  John,  39. 
Festivities  in  Philadelphia,  51. 
Fincastle,  Fort  (Pa.),  10. 
Fisher,  Jabez  Maud,  96. 
Fisher,  Joshua,  35. 
Fisher,  Samuel,  35. 
Fisher,  Thomas,  35. 
Fleet,  British,  53. 
Fleming,  James,  15,  16. 
Flushing  Fly    (L.  I.),  54. 

Fox,  Brig.  Gen.  H.  E.,  of  the  second  bat 
talion,  British  Grenadiers,  105,  108. 


Fox,  Joseph,  36,  68. 

Fourth  and  Fifth   Townships    (Ont.),   21. 

Foutz,  Christian,  57,  59. 

Franklin,   Benjamin,  23. 

Franks,  David  Solesbury,  71. 

Frederick   County    (Va.),  37. 

Fredericktown    (Va.),   11. 

Friends,  see  Quakers. 

Friends'  Academy  in  Philadelphia,  8«. 

GADDIS,  Col.  Thomas,  13. 

Gage,  Thomas,  governor  of  Massachusetts 
and  commander  of  British  army,  10. 

Galloway,  Joseph,  joins  Howe  in  New  Jer 
sey,  30 ;  accompanies  British  to  Philadelphia, 
40 ;  on  enlistments,  42 ;  census  of  Phila 
delphia  by,  42 ;  adviser  to  Howe,  43 ;  other 
duties  of,  44,  45 ;  confiscation  of  estate, 
57,  59 ;  pardon  refused  to,  85,  86 ;  sale  of 
estate  of,  92,  94 ;  sails  for  England,  97 ; 
services  to  fellow  refugees,  97 ;  death  of, 
98. 

Gates,  Gen.  Horatio,  15. 

Gibson,  Hon.  John,  66. 

George  III.,   10,   58,  89. 

Germantown  (Pa.),  12,  40;  battle  of,  46;  dam 
aged  by  British,  55 ;  sale  of  estate  of  in 
habitant  of,  92. 

Gilpin,  Thomas,  45. 

Girty,  George,  15,  17. 

Girty,  James,   14,   15. 

Girty,  Simon,  14. 

Gordon,  Thomas,  84,  94. 

Gosfield  Township    (Ont),   17. 

Granville  (N.  S.),  100. 

Graves,  Adam,  15. 

Graves,  John  George,   15. 

Greswold    ("Grizzle"),  Edward,  78. 

Guest,  Henry,  100. 

Guysborough    (N.   S.),  101. 

HAGERSTOWN   (Md.).  11. 

Halifax  (N.  S.),  17,  75,  84,  87,  100,  101. 

Hamilton,  Henry,  lieut.  governor  of  Detroit, 
14. 

Hamilton,  William,  74. 

Hand,   Brig.   Gen.  Edward,   15. 

Hanger,  Maj.   George,  44. 

Harding,  George,  44. 

Hardy,   George,  70. 

Harris,   William,   96. 

Hart,   Charmless,  58. 

Hart,  John,  44,  58. 

Harvey,  Abraham,  76. 

Heinrichs,  Capt.  Johann,  52. 

Hessians,  39,  52. 

Hewlett,  Lt.  Col.  Richard,  of  the  third  bat 
talion,  DeLancey's  Brigade  (Loyalist),  104, 
106,  107. 

Hicks,  Gilbert,  29,  57. 

Higgins,  John,  14. 


114 


THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


History  of  Pennsylvania,  by  Robert  Proud,  87. 

Hog  Island   (Pa.),  39. 

Hovenden,  Capt  Richard,  of  the  Philadelphia 
Light  Dragoons,  41,  49. 

Hover,  Casper,  20. 

Howe,  Gen.  Sir  William,  expedition  to  Phil- 
adelphia,  11,  38,  40,  42,  43,  48;  invasion  of 
New  Jersey,  29 ;  comparison  of  strength 
of  Washington  and,  48 ;  embarks  for  Eng 
land,  51 ;  accompanied  by  Loyalists,  96 ; 
advises  Loyalists  to  make  terms  with 
Washington,  97. 

Huff,  John,  26. 

Humphreys,  James,  Jr.,  99. 

Hunt,  Isaac,  23,  24,  99. 

Hunt,  James  Henry  Leigh,  99. 

Hunt,  John,   36. 

Hunterdon  County   (N.  J.),  27. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  quoted,  96,  97. 

ILLICIT  trade,  78,  80. 

Indians,  9 ;  councils  of,  10 ;  as  auxiliaries,  12  ; 
Ohio  villages  of,  14 ;  at  Detroit,  15 ;  Ottawa, 
17 ;  purchase  of  tract  of,  66,  67 ;  raids  of, 
89. 

Ingersoll,  Jared,  37. 

Inimical  persons,  71,  73,  76. 

Iredell,  Abraham.  59,  106. 

Ireland,  74,  75. 

JACKSON,  John,  80. 
James,  Abel,  35,  58. 
James,  Capt.  Jacob,  of  the  Philadelphia  Light 

Dragoons,  41,  78. 
James  River  (Va.),  12,  16. 
Johnson,  Gen.,  16. 
Johnson,  John,  96. 
Johnston,  Tryon   County,    (N.   Y.),   19. 

KASKASIA   (111.),  11,  15. 

Kearsley,  Dr.  John,  Jr.,  23,  24,  59. 

Keen,  Raymond,  94. 

Keene,  Reynold,  48,  57. 

Kelly,  Hugh,  15,  16,  17. 

Kennebecasis  River    (N.   B.),   107. 

Kensington  (Pa.),  48,  49. 

Kentner,   George,  20. 

Kidd,  Alexander,  41. 

King's  Bridge   (N.  Y.),   54. 

Kingsclear   Parish    (N.   B.),   107. 

Kirkland,    Col.    Moses,    of   the    South    Carolina 

Rangers   (Loyalist),  25. 
Knight,  Joshua,   102. 
Knox,  Thomas,  109. 
Kribel,  Rev.  George,  32. 
Kugler,  John,  76. 
Kugler,  Susanna,  76. 

LACEY,  Sub-lieut.,  later  Brig.  Gen.  John,  34, 

49. 
Lafayette,  Gen.,  51. 


Lancaster    (Pa.),  39. 

Lancaster  County   (Pa.),  89,  46,  72,  92,  98. 

Land,  Robert,  59. 

Land  bounties  for  Loyalist  refugees,  21,  41, 
56,  101-109. 

Land   Office    (Pa,),   68. 

Lane,  Henry,   76. 

Lee,  Gen.  Charles,  52. 

Lee,  Joseph,  23. 

Legislature,  see  Assembly. 

Leslie,  Gen.,  16. 

Levy,  Mordecai,  23. 

Lewis,  Curtis,  38. 

Lewis,  James,  13. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  22. 

Leyburn,  George,  45. 

Lindon,  Hugh,  58. 

Livingston,  William,  governor  of  New  Jer 
sey,  50,  75. 

Logan,  Deborah,  54. 

London    (Eng.),  23. 

Long  Island   (N.  Y.),  74,  98,  104. 

Loosley,  Thomas,  23. 

Losses  of  Loyalists,  54,   100. 

Loyal  Association  Club,  51. 

Loyal  Foresters  (Tory  corps),  12,  13. 

Loyalists,  on  the  upper  Ohio,  13,  14 ;  at  De 
troit,  15,  16 ;  in  northeastern  Pennsylvania, 
19 ;  in  Niagara  peninsula,  21 ;  in  Philadel 
phia,  23 ;  from  New  Jersey,  24 ;  of  Bucks 
County,  (Pa.),  26;  in  election  of  April,  1776, 
27;  clubs  of,  28,  51;  activities  of,  28;  con 
duct  of,  after  July  4,  1776,  29 ;  persecution 
of,  30 ;  released  on  bond,  31 ;  Moravian,  32 ; 
influenced  by  Washington's  army,  34 ;  ar 
rest  of  prominent,  37 ;  join  British,  38 ;  re 
main  in  Philadelphia,  89 ;  flock  within  Brit 
ish  lines,  40 ;  form  regiments,  41-43 ;  as 
civil  officials,  44 ;  open  shops,  45 ;  dependent 
condition  of  many,  47,  48 ;  patrol  roads,  47  ; 
ordered  to  raise  produce,  48 ;  passing  in  and 
out  of  city,  49 ;  distress  of,  50 ;  several 
thousands  leave  with  the  British,  53  ;  suffer 
losses,  54 ;  University  endowed  with  estates 
of,  60 ;  many  remain  after  evacuation  of 
Philadelphia,  69,  72 ;  eviction  of  wives 
of,  73 ;  opposition  to  presence  of,  76, 
81,  82 ;  pardoned,  77,  78 ;  subjected  to  test 
act  in  1786,  89;  sale  of  estates  of,  92-95; 
arrive  at  New  York,  98 ;  settle  in  England, 
Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick,  96-109. 

Loyalist  regiments : 
American  Legion,  70 ; 
British  Legion,   101; 
Bucks    County   Light   Dragoons,    41,    42,    54, 

68; 

Butler's  Rangers,  14,  18,  19,  20; 
Loyal  Foresters,   12,  13 ; 
Maryland    Royal    Retliators    (in    process    of 

formation) ,   16 ; 
Maryland  Loyalists,  41,  54; 


INDEX 


116 


New  Jersey  Volunteers,  31,  42.  49,  106,  107 ; 
New  York  Volunteers,  12  ; 
Pennsylvania  Loyalists,  41,   54,   106,   109 ; 
Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons.  41,  48,  49,  54, 

78,  101,   106; 
Queen's  Rangers,   11,   17,  41,   42,   48,  49,    53. 

54,  106,  108,  109; 

Roman   Catholic   Volunteers,    41,   64; 
Royal   Guides   and   Volunteers,   41,   54 ; 
Volunteers  of  Ireland,  42,  53,  54 ; 
West  Jersey  Volunteers,  42,  53. 

MCDONALD,  coi.  Allen,  25. 

McDonald,  Capt.  Alexander,  38. 

McDonald,  Gen.  Donald,  of  the  North  Caro 
lina  Highlanders  (Loyalists),  25. 

McLeod,    Capt.   Norman,   42. 

Maryland  Royal  Retaliators,  16. 

Matthews,  Maj.  David,  98. 

Mendenhall,  Thomas,   74. 

Menonists,  24. 

Meschianza,  51. 

Mitflin,    Thomas,   61. 

Militia,  9,  10,  81,  32,  70,  71,  72,  81,  82. 

Militia  bill,  32,  33. 

Millard,  Thomas,   61. 

Mississippi  River,  11. 

Mob  violence,  71. 

Mohawk  valley  (N.  Y.),  19. 

Molesworth.  James,  31. 

Monmouth  Court  House   (N.  J.),  battle  of,  63. 

Monongalia  County  (Va.),  13. 

Montreal    (Ont.),  21. 

Moody,  Lieut.  James,  of  the  first  battalion, 
New  Jersey  Volunteers,  79. 

Moody,  John,  79,  80. 

Moravians,  32. 

Morgan,   Col.   Zackwell,    13. 

Moorestown    (N.   J.),   74. 

Morris,   Robert,   40 ;  quoted,    54. 

Morton,  Robert,  40 ;  quoted,  64. 

Murell,  Joseph,  44. 

Murray,  Lieut.  James,  of  the  Queen's  Rangers, 
11,  42. 

Muskingum    (O.),    66. 

NEW  BRUNSWICK,  province  of,  migration 
of  Loyalists  to,  101-109. 

New  Englanders,  resorting  to  Philadelphia,  23. 

New  Jersey,  Loyalists  from,  24,  44,  47  ;  Whig 
associators  sent  into,  29  ;  Loyalists  flee  into, 
30  ;  prisoners  from,  31  ;  Loyalist  corps  raised 
in,  42 ;  foraging  expedition  into,  49 ;  inter 
course  between  Philadelphia  and,  65 ;  in 
vaded  by  British,  29,  77. 

Newburyport    (Mass.),    75. 

New  Jersey  Gazette,  78. 

New  Jersey  Volunteers  (Loyalist),  31,  42,  49, 
106,  107. 

Newspapers  (Loyalist)  in  Philadelphia,  46, 
47,  58,  68,  99. 


Newton   (L.  I.),  104. 

New  Utrecht    (L.  L),   54.   101. 

New  York  City,  Dr.  Connolly  goes  to,  12; 
refugees  in,  16  ;  enlisted  men  on  their  way 
to,  24 ;  Loyalist  escapes  to,  25 ;  Volunteers 
of  Ireland  in,  63 ;  letters  to  and  from,  74 ; 
illicit  trade  with,  78 ;  sale  of  estate  of  in 
habitant  of,  92  ;  board  of  relief  in,  98,  99 ; 
vacant  lots  for  refugees  in,  98 ;  evacuation 
of,  100,  101,  105. 

New  York  State,  19,  58. 

New  York  Volunteers    (Loyalist),  12. 

Niagara,  Fort   (N.  Y.),   14,  18,   19,   20,  66,  89. 

Niagara  peninsula,  Loyalists  in,  21. 

Non-associators,  27,  28,  32. 

Non-jurors,  49,   57,   59,   70,  76,   87,  88,   89. 

Norfolk,    (Va.),   10. 

Northampton  County  (Pa.),  27,  32,  46,  68.  72, 
92. 

Northampton  Parish   (N.  B.),  109. 

North   Carolina,    12,    25,   30,   92,   93. 

Northumberland   County    (Pa.),   72. 

Nova  Scotia,  province  of,  14,  17,  75,  84,  100. 
101. 

OBERLLN,  John  Francis,  32. 

Office  of  Enquiry,  76. 

Ohio,   escape  of  Loyalists  through,   14. 

Ohio  River,  10,   13,  16. 

Old  Chillicothe    (O.).   14. 

Ontario,  Lake,  20. 

Oram,  James,  41. 

Ordinances,  28,  29,  66,  67. 

Oswego    (N.  Y.),   20. 

Ottawa  Indians   (Ont.),  17. 

Oyer  and  Terminer,  court  of,  71. 

PARDON  of  Loyalists,  77,   78,   83-91. 

Parliament,  Joseph  Galloway's  testimony  be 
fore,  42. 

Parr,  John,  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  76,  102, 
108. 

Parrtown  (St.  John,  N.  B.),  105,  106,  108, 
109. 

Passports,  74,  75. 

Patriotic   Society   of  Philadelphia,    69. 

Paxton,   Phineas,   77. 

Peace   commissioners,    62. 

Pemberton,    Israel,    35. 

Pemberton,  James,  35. 

Penn,  John,  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  28 ; 
deposed,  29,  62  ;  paroled,  37  ;  claims  of,  63- 
65 ;  goes  to  New  York,  75,  87 ;  mentioned, 
96. 

Penn,  Mrs.  John,   47,   87. 

Penn,   Richard,   69,   96. 

Penn,   Thomas,   64. 

Pennfield    (N.   B.),    85,    101-103. 

Pennsylvania,   see  contents. 

Pennsylvania  Loyalists  (Tory  corps),  41,  64, 
106,  109. 


116 


THE  LOYALISTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


Pennsylvania  Evening  Post,  46,  47,  68. 
Pennsylvania  Gazette,  46,  68. 
Pennsylvania  Ledger,  46,  47,  99. 
Pensacola  (W.  Fla.),  109. 
Pensions  asked  for  Loyalists,  104. 
Persecutions    of    Loyalists,    22,    23,    30,    47  ;    of 
Moravians,   32,   33 ;  of   citizens   of   Philadel 
phia,  55. 

Philadelphia,  British  in  possession  of,  12 ; 
persecutions  in,  22 ;  Loyalists  in,  23-25,  27, 
34,  43,  46,  52,  70;  the  Aliens  leave,  27; 
Tory  clubs  in,  27  ;  fears  British  invasion, 
30 ;  Howe's  expedition  to,  35-40 ;  officials 
arrested,  37 ;  stripped  of  its  lead,  etc.,  39 ; 
Tory  administration  in,  43 ;  Tory  enlist 
ments  in,  42,  58 ;  asylum  for  Loyalists,  46  ; 
intercourse  with,  48-50 ;  festivities  in,  51 ; 
British  and  Loyalists  evacuate,  52,  53,  58 ; 
damages  to,  54,  55,  68 ;  Gen.  Benedict  Ar 
nold  commandant  of,  68 ;  Toryism  in,  70 ; 
disapproves  abolition  of  test  laws,  88 ;  sale 
of  Loyalist  estates  in,  92,  93  ;  magistrates 
of,  98;  settlers  at  Shelburne  (N.  S.),  100; 
regiments  locate  in  Nova  Scotia,  101 ; 
visitors  at  Pennfield,  102  ;  opposes  return  of 
Loyalists,  103  ;  mentioned,  105. 

Philadelphia   County    (Pa.),   24. 

Philadelphia  Light  Dragoons  (Loyalist),  41, 
48,  49,  54,  78,  101,  106. 

Pickard,   William,   14,   20. 

Pike,   Thomas,    36. 

Pitt,  Fort    (Pa.),   9,    10,   15. 

Pittsburgh    (Pa.),  10,   14,   15,   16,   89. 

Pitt,  William,  65. 

Pleasants,    Samuel,   35. 

Plots,  Tory,  10,  11,  13,  15,  79. 

Port  Mouton   (N.  S.),  101. 

Potts,  John,  44,  57,  84,  92,  98,  99. 

Pottsgrove   (Pa.),  46,  92. 

Prince  William  Parish    (N.   B.),   107. 

Pritchard,  Joseph,   70. 

Privateers,  79. 

Proclamations,  9,  29,  38,  40,  41,  48,  58,  68,  78, 
80,  81. 

Proprietary  officials,  ignored,  29  ;  arrest  of,  37. 

Proud,  Robert,  35,  39,  86. 

Provincials'  Burial  Ground  at  Salamanca 
(N.  B.),  107. 

"QUAKER  Blues,"  23. 

Quakers,  meetings  for  sufferings  of,  22 ;  me 
morial  of,  24 ;  testimony  of  yearly  meeting 
of,  25;  in  election  of  April,  1776,  27;  re 
main  in  Philadelphia,  30,  35,  39,  43; 
changed  attitude  of,  34  ;  testimonies  against 
war,  46 ;  a  disturbing  element,  75 ;  seizure 
of  horses  of,  77;  settle  at  Pennfield  (N.  B.), 
85,  101-103. 

Queens  County  (N.  B.),  107. 

Queens  County   (N.  S.),  101. 

Queensbury   Parish    (N.    B.),    108,    109. 


Queen's  Rangers   (Loyalist),  11,  17,  41,  42,  48, 

49,  54,  78,  101,  106,   108,   109. 
Quinte,  Bay  of,  31. 

RANKIN,  James,  39,  57. 

Rankin,   John,   85,   94,    102. 

Raymond,   Rev.    W.   O.,    109. 

Rawdon,  Col.  Lord,  of  the  Volunteers  of  Ire 
land,  42. 

Rawdon   (N.  S.),  100. 

Reading   (Pa.),  40. 

Redstone  Old  Fort  (Pa.),  13,  15. 

Redwood,   William,   45. 

Reed,   Joseph,   71. 

Reprisals    upon    the   Loyalists,    56-67. 

Repression  of  Loyalists  in  southeastern  Penn 
sylvania,  38-54. 

Reynolds,  James,  44. 

Rittenhouse,   David,   35. 

Robb,  William,  45. 

Roberts,   George,   44. 

Roberts,   John,    85,   94,    102. 

Robertson,  Alexander,  14. 

Robertson,  James,  68. 

Robinson,  Col.  Beverly,  of  the  Loyal  American 
Regiment  and  of  the  Royal  Guides  and  Pio 
neers,  98. 

Ross,  George,  86. 

Ross,   Malcolm,   58. 

Royal  Gazette   (Parrtown,  N.  B.),  106. 

Royal  Guides  and  Pioneers  (Loyalist),  41,  42, 
54,  106,  108. 

Royal   Highland   Emigrants    (Loyalist),    24. 

Ryerson,  Capt.  Samuel,  of  the  third  battalion, 
New  Jersey  Volunteers  (Loyalist),  107. 

ST.    ANN'S    Point    (Fredericton,   N.   B.),    106, 

108. 

St.  Eustatia,  island  of,  74,  75. 
St.   John    (N.    B.),   see   Parrtown. 
St.   John  River    (N.   B.),   102,    104,    105-109. 
St.  Lawrence  River,  21. 
St.    Leger's    expedition,   20. 
Sabine,    Lorenzo,    Loyalists    of    the    American 

Revolution,    quoted,    65,    100,    101. 
Sale  of  forfeited  Tory  estates,   92-95. 
Salem   (Mass),  23. 
Sandford,  Capt.  Thomas,  of  the  Bucks  County 

Light  Dragoons,   41,   68. 

Sauer,  Christopher,  Jr.,  87,  92,  94  ;  3d.,  106. 
Scioto  River    (O.),   14. 
Schuylkill  River    (Pa.),   40,  51. 
Scotch   Presbyterian   congregations,    90. 
Scotchmen   in   Philadelphia,   45. 
Scott,  James,  76. 

Settlements    (Loyalist),   17,   20,   21,   96-109. 
Shaw,  John,  78. 

Shelburne    (N.    S.),    99,    100,    107. 
Shelley,  Daniel,  39. 
Shewell,   Stephen,  48. 
Ship  Harbor    (N.  S.),   100. 


INDEX 


117 


Shippen,    Edward,    chief    justice    of    Pennsyl 
vania,  70,  86. 

Shoemaker,  Samuel,  36,  44,  53,  57,   59,  92.  94. 
Shoemaker,  Mrs.   Samuel,  73. 
Shrewsbury    (N.  J.),  29,  78. 
Simcoe,   Lt.  Col.  John  Graves,  of  the  Queen's 

Rangers,  17,   53,   108. 
Skinner,    Brig.    Gen.    Cortlandt,    of    the    New 

Jersey  Volunteers    (Loyalist),   34. 
Smith,  Andrew,  43. 
Smith,  John,  59. 
Smith,  Thomas,  26. 
Smith,  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  36,  67,  61. 
Smyth,  Dr.  J.  F.  D.,  11,  25 ;  captain  in  Queen's 

Rangers,  11,  42. 
Somerset  County   (Md.),  16. 
Snider,  Elias,  34. 
Snider,  Peter,  34. 
Southampton  Parish   (N.  B.),  109. 
South  Carolina,  25. 

South  Street  Theatre,  Philadelphia,  51. 
Spangler,  George,  68. 
Sparks,  James,  44. 
Sproat,  David,  58. 
Stackhouse,  Robert,   105. 
Stansbury,  Joseph,  31,  44,  45,  48,  74,  78. 
Stanwix,  Fort  (N.  Y.),  20. 
Staten  Island  (N.  Y.),  34,  42,  53,  54,  98. 
Stedman,   Charles,  Jr.,   59. 
Steelman,  James,  78. 

Stephenson,  Capt.,  of  the  Queen's  Rangers,  53. 
Stiff,  James,  34. 

Stockton,  Maj.  R.  V.,  of  the  New  Jersey  Vol 
unteers   (Loyalist),  31. 
Story,  Enoch,  43,  44,  53,  58. 
Story,  Thomas,  58. 
Sunbury  County  (N.  B.),  107. 
Supreme  Court,  72,  92. 

Supreme  Executive  Council,  29,  35,  37,  39,  46, 
50,  56,  57,  58,  59,  60,  61,  66,  67,  68,  69,  70, 
71,  72,  73,  74,  76,  77,  79,  80,  82,  84,  85,  92, 
93,  94. 

Surphlitt   Robert,    14. 
Susquehanna  River,   12,   19,  20,  89. 
Swanwick,  Joseph,  59. 

Symes,  Lieut  James  S.,  of  the  Royal  High 
land  Emigrants,  24. 

TARLETON,  Lt.  Col.  Bannister,  of  the  British 

Legion    (Loyalist),    101. 

Test  acts,  32,  33,  49,  50,  59,  72,  87,  88,  89,  90. 
Thayer,  Arodi,  98. 
Thomas,  Arthur,  25,  85. 
Thomas,  Capt.  Evan,  49. 
Thomas,  Michael,  20. 
Tilghman,  Francis,   45. 
Tilghman,  James,  37. 
Traitors,    found    guilty    as,    16 ;    attainder    of, 

57 ;   debtors   of,    58 ;  proclamation   of,   58. 
Treason  act,  19,  29,  32. 
Trenton   (N.  J.),  29,  30,  34,  68.  92. 


Tryon  County    (N.  Y.),    19. 
Turner,  Edward,  20. 

UNION  Iron  Works  (N.  J.),  27,  30,  37. 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  60-62,  99. 
Upper  Makefield  (Pa.),  26. 

VAN  BUSKIRK,  Lt.  Col.   Abraham,  100. 

Vanderlip,    William,   20. 

Van  Dyke,  Lt.  Col.  John,  of  the  West  Jersey 

Volunteers,  42. 
Varnum,  Frederick,  68. 
Verner,   Frederick,    68. 
Vernon,    Gideon,    38,   44,   80. 
Vernon,  Nathaniel,   57,   59. 
Virginia,  9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  15,  16,  42.  45,  47. 
Voght,   Christian,   59. 

Volunteers  of  Ireland    (Loyalist),  42,  53,  54. 
Vulturt,  ship -of -war,  70. 

WALN,    Richard,    53. 

Wartman,  Abraham,  20. 

Washington,  Gen.  George,  34,  40,  48,  53,  69. 

Watson,  Lt.   Col.,  of  the  Bucks  County  Light 

Dragoons,  41. 
Watson,  Dr.  John,  38. 
Wayne,  Gen.  Anthony,  40,  76,  88. 
Wentworth,    John,    governor    of    New    Hamp 
shire,  96. 

West  Augusta  County    (Va.),  10. 
West  Florida,  109. 
West  Indies,  99. 

West   Jersey    Volunteers    (Loyalist),    42,    53. 
West  Point   (N.  Y.),  69. 
Wharton,  Thomas,  35. 
"Whig   Association,"   78. 

Whigs,  in  strife  with  Tories  in  Tryon  County, 
(N.  Y.),  19;  in  Philadelphia  after  arrival  of 
the  British,  54  ;  object  to  preliminary  peace, 
81  ;   as  prisoners    in  New   York,    99. 
White,  Robert,  58. 
Wickersham,  Amos,  23. 
Willet,  Walter,  41. 
Willing,  Richard,   86. 
Willis,  William,   39. 
Wilmington   (Del.),  34,  38. 
Wilson,  James,  Esq.,  71. 
Wilson,  John,  78,  85. 
Winchester    (Va.),  37,  46. 
Windron,  Hendrik,   19. 
Winslow,   Lt.   Col.   Edward,   104,  108. 
Wintermute,  John,  20. 
Wives   of   Loyalists   exiled,   73-75. 
Worcester   County    (Md.),   16. 

YELDALL,  Dr.  Anthony,  59,  74. 
York   (Pa.),  39. 

York  County   (Pa.),  46,   58,  72,   92. 
Yorktown    (Va.),  12,  13,  16. 
Young,  John,  59,  92. 


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